Semper Eadem
by TheDukeofWellington
Summary: A world where every man has a motive to kill you, and every action could kill you is the world forced upon Arthur Wellesley and his other half, Amata Almodovar. Together they enter a world so repulsively void of morals and ethics that they themselves hold onto each other for fear of losing themselves. This is the Atomic Wasteland.
1. A Road Begins With A Single Step

_**Hello everybody.**_

_**My name is Nathaniel and this is my first attempt at a fanfiction. While I am not new to fanfiction i am new to writing it. This is one of my favourite games ever and although i hold it in very high regard, I am aware of several shortcomings with the story. I intend not to follow the story directly, I am not of the school of thought that is convinced that direct imitation is a good reason to write a story about it, and as a result I will be wandering off with the story in several directions and I intent to expand the story well beyond the original Vanilla version.**_

_**As I have previously said I am new to writing. While I have a great deal of experience with books, being a antiquarian, I am afraid I poses neither the brilliance of any conventional writer nor the detailed literature side of writing, I do possess, however, an imagination for this fic and I intent to draw the string out as it were. I do have a mild form of Dyslexia, so please account for any misspelt words, which if you inform me of I will rectify immediately, however please bear in mind I am English and therefore spell things a slightly different way from the Americans. Metre and Litre being one such example.**_  
_**I have somewhat of a fascination with the Duke of Wellington so if anybody can spot all the references throughout I will award you with one hundred points. I have, and will, base his character to mine heavily and i do not intent to make his personality a two dimensional affair.**_

_**Any criticism or suggestions will be taken gracefully and I will endeavour to implement them as best I can. Furthermore it would be much appreciated if you could spare the time to review this story. Criticism serves the same function as pain, it brings to our attention an unhealthy state of things. If at any point things could be improved please let me know, and if it ever appears that I do not know where the story is going, it is most likely that I don't.**_

_**So once more, welcome aboard and I will try my damnedest to make this an interesting story. Please enjoy and review and i hope you enjoy my story.**_

_**Nathaniel Howarth Sanchez**_

* * *

Semper Eadem

James was impatiently pacing back and forth in a narrow tunnel corridor underneath the Jefferson Memorial. His thoughts wandered between his concern for his wife, and his anticipation for his soon-to-be born child. He was growing nervous, the contractions had started a few hours ago, and the ordeal shouldn't be taking this long, should it? With only the dripping sound of water accompanying him, it was a lonely, fear filled wait, unending in its span and making the doctor more nervous by the second, but all he could do was wait in the visceral darkness. While James was a professional doctor, Dr Li had asked him to leave the room, for privacy and the fact that James' emotions were clearly affecting his wife, a fact he knew, but how could he be cool in such a time? He knew of Catherine's congenital heart defect, he knew that it was going to be a long and exhausting time for her, but he knew she could pull through, James had personally spent weeks finding the necessary materials and equipment for the birth, meticulously finding a solution to any potential problem, but he knew if Catherine's heart worked too hard, the results would be catastrophic. James tried to bury this knowledge with the hope that in a few more hours he would be a loving father, and Catherine would be fine. It was all getting too much for him. He leant against a wall and slumped onto the cold, wet concrete floor, finding it a comfort to be sat still rather than endlessly pacing, waiting for what could be hours.

He sat there, thinking about the trivialities of being a father, would it be a girl or a boy? What would he name it? What would the teenage years be like?  
"God," he thought out loud, "Am I ready for this?"

He knew that he couldn't prepare for everything, but he would do his best to bring his child up with Catherine in a loving, nuclear family. James laughed to himself at that thought of a nuclear family,

"How fittingly ironic" he thought.

James was exhausted, physically and emotionally, he sat there thinking everything through again and again with the groaning wait burring at his mind. Eventually, in a near fit of frustration, he decided to speak with Dr Li. He rose to his feet and set off in search for her, but as he walked to the door the mechanism within it activated. Before him stood Dr Li. Her face screamed stress and the always proud and collected doctor was clearly on edge. She sighed, delivering a great deal of panic to James.

"It's going well," she said. "It's taking a while, as expected but nothing to cause alarm."

With this, James felt a massive wave of relief wash over him; he had been hugely worried about the time. He jumped on his opportunity without hesitation.

"How is she" he said hastily, showing all the signs of a man in distress.

"She's fine, James. Don't worry. Everything checks out fine, her blood pressure is okay but we need to monitor it, obviously. I've given her a makeshift epidural with the MedX we have, its crude but it will lessen the pain somewhat".  
James was deeply pleased with the result, especially considering the alternative scenarios which had been racing in his head.

"So, is it time?" he asked cautiously.

"Yes, we need you scrubbed up and on the floor in the next 10 minutes, but just come in calm James, that's what she needs right now. She wants you to deliver the child, is that okay with you?"

James nodded slowly and took a breath to steady himself and set about his pre-operation ablations, cleaning up to his elbows with soap and abbraxo cleaner. The solution burnt his arms but he found solace in that it was also doing the same to any infections. He donned his pristine white lab coat and his face mask before taking a moment to steady himself. He breathed beep for a minute, becoming slightly light headed in the process. He set off towards the makeshift theatre, entering the room with all the grace he could afford. He walked over to his young, beautiful wife and gripped her hand with his gloved one.

"How are you doing sweetheart?" he asked with the usual calm and power that characterised his voice.

"Fine" Catherine smiled back, though clearly in a great deal of pain.

"That's my girl" he smiled sympathetically back to her.

He leant down and kissed her sweaty forehead and walked down to the opposite end of the bed she was on. Dr Li stood behind him

"Okay Catherine, the head is crowning, we need you to push now, okay?" Dr Li ordered.

Catherine screamed as she pushed as hard as she could, James grimaced behind his mask, how could so much pain come from such a happy moment? He let Dr Li perform the last stages before she handed control to him. He gripped the baby with a set of forceps and pull gently, pulling the child from the canal onto the birthing sheet. He picked up his child, and stared at the wrinkled face of his new future, and a million thought rushed through his head, not a single one about the sex of the child. Reality came spinning back to him.

"Formalities first" he said to himself.

"Let's see, are you a boy or a girl" he said slowly, examining his new born child. "It's a boy! A boy! We've got a son Catherine!" he said happily, showing no signs of the man who was nearly in pieces but 10 minutes before. "A beautiful healthy baby boy!"

He was ecstatic, beaming over his son. He had privately hoped for a son, someone he could be a true role model to.

"Oh … oh James, oh we did it" Catherine said meekly, clearly exhausted by her ordeal, but no less pleased with the outcome.

"A son, a beautiful son." Despite the pain and regardless of her delirious state that she was in, she was just as pleased as James. James' nuclear family was a reality, and he couldn't be happier.

"You've got a bright future ahead of you son, I'm sure of it" he said softly to the child.

The child began to contort its shrivelled face, amusing James to no end.  
"Look at you!" he said, sounding rather like a baby himself."Look at you… Hi there! I'm your daddy little guy. Dad-iee!" James looked between his son and his wife, content as ever."You're going to need a name aren't you? Your mother and I have been talking, what do you think about Arthur? That's a good name, don't you think? Suites him perfectly. Arthur Wellesley".

James looked behind him to see that a small monitor was beeping quietly.

"Looks like they've finished the gene projection, let's see what you'll look like when you're all grown up."

James turned to the monitor to see a face that looked almost identical to his, the child would have the same facial shape of his father, the light Caucasian skin of his father, he would have a similar type of dark brown that was slightly wavy, his nose was to retain the shape of his fathers, the child's eyes however were to take darker, more piercing shade of blue than his fathers, almost Prussian blue. In all James could have sat himself next to the projection and anyone would have had difficulty telling the two apart. James proudly noted that his child had a handsome face, derived from his own, he chuckled.

"You're going to look a lot like your dad. See that Catherine?"

Catherine had been looking at the monitor through tired eyes but she could clearly see the resemblance between the two, "shockingly similar", she thought.

"Ooooh, ooh very strapping ha...ha...ha"  
James was concerned for his wife, he knew it had taken a lot out of her and she was clearly suffering, but he was too enthralled by his new child to notice Catherine's heart rate monitor fluctuating wildly.

James looked to his son "It's a big world out there, full of all sorts of people, what about you? What kind of person are you going to be? You'll just…."

James was cut short by his wife. By now the monitor was screaming alert and Catherine was in a great deal of distress.

"Christ not now!" James thought to himself, he ran over to Catherine's side and tried administering some drugs to bring her heart under control.

"Catherine! She's gone into cardiac arrest!" he looked to Dr Li.

The drugs failed to make any impact as Catherine's heart went on uncontrolled. He watched his wife for a brief moment. He saw all semblance of colour drain from her face. Her body went limp and he face was paralysed in a state of pure panic as James desperately tried to get a reaction from her. Her body was cold and sweaty, her hair drenched in it and her forehead beading with sweat as well. James looked on in horror as he witnessed his love die before him. He started compressions as soon as he thought it was best. He heard his wife's rib cage crack with a sickening crunch when he applied force for the compression. He began counting in his head.

"One, one thousand, two one thousand".

He was losing everything to him, and he knew it. Nothing was working.

He looked to Dr Li "Get the baby out of here now!" he ordered.

Dr Li wheeled the child away while James stayed, fighting his losing battle to save his love. James wouldn't let death beat him; he stayed administering CPR for a whole ten minutes, despite the monitor declaring the patient dead and requesting that it be shut down to preserve charge. Dr Li re-entered the room, seeing a distraught James with tears running down his face trying to bring Catherine back. But she had gone. She walked to James and tore him from the body. James resisted, fighting her efforts to bring him away. Dr Li grabbed James into a hug, and James began to cry. She had never heard the man cry before. He was always the rock in the storm, all the way through the project. Now the rubble of the man cried against her, looking with horror at his wife's body. The shattered James could do nothing but look upon her beautiful dead face.

* * *

1 year later

James stood at the far end of the room, inside a small playpen built to house his adventurous one year old. The pen itself was quite large. The vault room James had set it up the pen in was his bedroom but he had allocated more than half of the room to his child. He was clapping to get the small child to walk to him.

"Here Arthur, come to daddy".

The child picked himself up unsteadily; supporting himself with the bed and when he was upright, with arms outstretched, he stumbled over to his father. James was amazed how quickly Arthur had developed, walking, and so well, at such a young age was unusual but he was proud of his young son.

"Just a little further" James said, encouraging the walking child.

Arthur wobbled his way over to James, hands clenching and opening, indicating he wanted to be picked up.

"There you are" James said when Arthur moved into the playpen."My goodness, only one year old and walking like a pro."

He gazed upon his son and was remembered of the bitter absence of his wife. Not a day had gone by when he hadn't reflected upon her. He thought of everything to do with her. When she first met him on the pier, when the two singles became a duality, and James thought about her death. He viewed her death as a sacrifice for Arthur, and he wouldn't let her die in vain. James had elected to raise Arthur and teach him of all the things his wife had held dear, and he knew that she would have given anything to see the clumsy child stumble his way towards her.

"Your mother would have been so proud" James said softly.

James looked to his pip boy and noticed the inbuilt messaging system was blinking. The overseer had "summoned" him. James sighed, he knew this was going to be another heated argument, but James needed the materials to carry on. He resented being under the control of such an authoritarian figure, but a necessary evil. James would just have to accept the dominance the overseer exerted upon him. After all his, ambitions required the overseer's cooperation. James sighed as he rose to his feet; he had wanted to spend the day he had off with his child, teaching him how to walk and help him with his motor controls, but that would have to wait. James had more pressing matters.

"Listen kiddo, I know you don't like it when daddy leaves you alone, but I need you to take care of yourself for a minute". James said locking his child into the pen. "You just stay here while daddy runs to his office, you'll be okay pal" speaking reassuringly to his child "I'll be back in a minute" he promised and walked out of the room to meet with the overseer.

James felt bad for temporarily abandoning his son, but he had to make his case to the overseer. He continued down the faded tunnels of vault 101. He had once joked that the vault was a "civilised hole in the ground". However with the overseer in charge, civilised translated into controlled. He walked to the upper levels of the vault, a short walk by any standards made all the quicker by the pace James was walking. He arrived outside of the Overseers quarters and let himself in. On the floor was the Overseers young daughter, a mere 2 months younger than Arthur. Straddled alongside her was the Overseers young wife Maria on the floor, playing with the young Amata.

"Hello Maria, is he in?" James said had always like Maria. She was quiet but thoughtful and caring and had helped to no end when James had first had to cope alone with Arthur. She had been unwell recently, finding herself short of breath and subject too large coughing fits and James was established as her physician.

"Oh hi James. Yes he's through there, just be warned, he's in one of those moods again" Maria advised jokingly.

"Thanks, I'll try not to rattle the cage too much, I've been on the receiving end enough times to know that he spits" James retorted amusingly. "Coincidentally, how have you been? You've not been round in a while" James inquired.

"I'm doing just fine thank you James. Those antibiotics are doing wonders "she replied.

James was unsure of the validity of that statement, more than likely it was a placebo effect. He had actually prescribed her some antibiotics, but he was beginning to suspect that whatever was wrong with her was far more serious than any chest infection.

"Marvellous, be sure to seem me for a check-up in two weeks, I just want to see how much you've improved" James ordered, showing his bed side manner was always as good as it always was.

He entered into a small room full of monitors. James stood there, composed as ever, waiting for the Overseer to acknowledge him. In the centre of the room sat a grey haired figure. He had a well-defined, stern face. His hands swiping over the keyboard of his computer, no doubt filling in dossiers on the vault residents, James thought. After a few awkward moments James coughed, announcing himself to the Overseer.

"Ah James, how good of you to join me. Everything is meeting your expectations, I assume?"

James recognised the air of authority the Overseer had. He commanded a presence which James knew was hard to resist against.

"Actually Alphonse, I want to start experiments upon one of the systems main filtration tanks" James stated calmly.

"James," Alphonse said condescendingly "how many times must I say this? We have no need for a scientist. We need a doctor not a mad man wasting vault resources on hopeless experiments. These 'experiments' are a waste of time."

James felt assaulted, he had been expecting the Overseer to be resistant, but it would seem that James was now on the defensive.  
"These 'experiments are to prepare, to prepare to survive" James replied assiduously. "Don't be a dammed fool Alphonse; you know that they could prove lifesaving. All I am asking for is one filter room out of dozens. Jonas and I will isolate it and circumnavigate it away from the other systems. There's no risk to the Vault…"

James was brutally cut off from the Overseer. "James! Don't be foolish! You can't prove these experiments valid above a glass of water, and you expect me to dedicate vault resources on such a scale based on such precarious results? For the good of the vault, No."

James was about to reply but he was rebuffed by the Overseer. "James you seriously want me to pull resources from circulation? I'm sorry, but my decision is final. It is regrettable that the work you put in won't come to fruition but I have told you from the moment you stepped in. You are the doctor, not god. I am the arbiter, and you will show me the respect I deserve."

He turned to the monitors at the wall and stared one in particular.

"You want me to believe that you can responsibly manage such resources? You can't even manage your infant." James looked at the screen noticing the young Arthur escaping from his pen, and walking towards James' bed.

"Bloody hell!" James muttered as he ran from the room. The overseer sat, not moving, simply continuing with his previous activities, albeit with a growing smug smile, plastering his face.

James ran back to his room as fast as he could. God knows what the baby could find and swallow. He found his room and opened the door to his sleeping quarters. There he found mischievous Arthur playing with his S.P.E.C.I.A.L. book. James grinned, seeing the whole ordeal as an overreaction and smiled down to his son. He began laughing at the boy

"You are quite the little explorer aren't you? Serves me right for trying to pen you in."

He looked at the framed biblical reference on the shelf. He looked at it and remembered his wife as a wave of sadness washed over him once more. He was sad not only for himself but also for Arthur. The child would grow up without a mother, a life James never wanted for him. He decided to show Arthur the single most important material possession that he owned.

"Come over here, I want to show you something"  
Arthur stumbled his way forward, dropping the book he was holding, looking into his father's eyes, grinning all the way. James leant down as Arthur approached him.

"See that?" he said pointing at the reference. "That was your mother's favourite passage."He looked down to Arthur, who was staring at his father.  
"It's from the bible. Revelation 21:6. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely."  
James looked longingly at the passage, remembering his past life. "She always loved that" he said slipping into his memories.

"Alright, let's see if your little friend Amata wants to play."

James had endeavoured to make Arthur and Amata friends. Not only was she close to the overseer, he hoped in future their child friendship would grow into an unbreakable bond, tying Arthur to the place he knew as home. But he also wanted his son to have a friend, and wasn't keen on the other candidates, or rather their parents, all carrying some disreputable trait or flaw. "Dirty old ladies breed dirty little girls" he thought to himself, reciting Juveniles speech on women from his classical studies, he always found such quotes useful to live by.

* * *

Arthur walked towards the canteen. His father had told him that he had a few water ration tickets left unclaimed and he had to cache them in before they expired. Arthur realised the usually busy vault was deserted, usually there were people walking to and fro, doing menial jobs and running errands, but today they were suspiciously absent. Regardless, Arthur walked on, ignoring the emptiness. He walked to the canteen door, he could see the lights were off, an unusual occurrence again. It was Arthur's birthday and he had hoped for a surprise party but it never came to fruition, and this year was no different. Even his father had forgotten it. He pressed the console adjacent to the door and it slid open. The room was black save for the light produced by Andy's exhaust fumes.

"Now Maitland! Now's your time" the robot said in its quintessential English accent.

"Who?" Arthur said puzzled.

With that a blinding light came from the room. Forcing Arthur's eyes to wrench close.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" came a deafening call from the packed canteen.

Arthur's eyes slowly adjusted to the light, making out the figures of about twenty people packed into the small canteen. In front of him stood his father and Amata.

"Happy birthday pal" James said walking towards his son. "I can't believe you're already 10. I'm so proud of you… If only your mother…" James veneration of his son was cut short by the Overseer.

The overseer adopted his usual official tone, though slightly softened, he didn't want to appear too over bearing to his future employee.

"Congratulations young man. I don't have to tell you how special this day is do I? Down here in vault in 101, when you turn ten, well, you're ready to start your first official responsibility. So here you are." The overseer presented a small wrist mounted interface with a command and control glove attached to it. "As Overseer I hereby present to your very own Pipboy 3000. Get used to it" The Overseers voice sounded rather cynical toward the end part of his speech, but that was just the way he was, Arthur thought. "You'll be getting your first assignment tomorrow" he said somewhat cryptically and then started laughing manically.

Arthur had always been intimidated by the Overseer. He was best friends with his daughter, and while lacking any overt parental traits, he was deeply protective over her and often went to great lengths to make Arthur remember that he was in charge. James could sense Arthur's unease and came to his rescue.

"Enjoy your party. You're only ten once. Go to Stanley to get it fitted to your arm, and then go and thank your guests."

Arthur nodded "Can I say hi to Amata first" he pleaded.

"Of course son. Just don't forget you have other guests" James prompted and walked away to sit by at the counter with Stanley.

Amata walked up to Arthur and said "Happy birthday! We really surprised you didn't we? Your dad was afraid you were onto us. But I told him not to worry. You're so easy to fool" She joked.

Arthur was embarrassed to admit it but they had. He had no idea of what they had planned. He thought discretion was the better part of valour and avoided her question.

"Thanks for throwing this party. Thanks for doing this for me" Arthur dodged.

Amata smiled softly back at him. "You're welcome, but really your dad did most of it. I just helped with the decorations and stuff." she admitted, but Arthur knew that she had put a lot of effort in, how else would the Overseer have been convinced if not for her intervention?

"Hey, I guess you can't guess what I got you for your birthday! Go on, guess!"

Arthur thought for a moment. "I really have no idea" he said defeated.

"Ha." Amata said revelling in her victory. "I knew I would surprise you. Who's your favourite Barbarian? That's right Grognak. Issue fourteen" Amata said proudly. She was clearly pleased with her find. "And with no missing pages" she added triumphantly. "I found this in a box of my father's old things, believe it or not. Imagine him reading comic books" she stated incredulously. "I guess everyone was ten once… well, I better let you get back to 'mingling' with your guests. Come and see me when you're done".

Amata had always been somewhat older than her age. She had carried a level of intelligence that Butch and his drones clearly lacked. She was intelligent in her own right. She had a knack for gauging emotions, a useful trait for a best friend. She had always tried to be older as well. The use of the word "mingling" was one such attempt. She had heard James use it a few weeks before and had endeavoured to include it in common speech as much as possible. She was confident with her superiors, but not always with her peers, but she had always got along with Arthur. Arthur, conversely, was a quiet child. He was a private person, sharing emotions and personal information with either his father, Amata or Jonas only. He was well mannered and intelligent, taking after his father. He had adopted an English accent through prolonged exposure to his father, but it suited him well and added a certain weight to the otherwise 1950s speakeasy dialect that ran rampant through the vault, peaking with the DeLoria family. He held Amata above all others his own age. He confided within her and the two had formed the bond James had been hoping for. The two were inseparable friends, and their activities were always done together. Amata walked over to her father and sat there, hands on her knees, waiting patiently for Arthur to return.

Arthur walked over to Stanley, who was sat on one of the stools by the bar.

"Happy Birthday young Master Wellesley!" the Andy the robot bellowed. "Attention everyone!" the robot announced "It's time to cut the cake!"

From the other side of the room Amata's head snapped around "Andy no!" she cried, but to no avail. The robot started up its rotor blade and massacred its way through the cake. What was left was battered icing and ground up cake.  
"Oh no…." Amata said sadly.

The robot hovered over to Arthur. "I am… mortified about the cake mishap… simply mortified, Master Wellesley" the robot said. If robots could have emotions, it would have sounded upset.

"It's okay Andy, don't worry" Arthur reassured.

"Splendid! Now if Sir has no further requests I have a certain task I need to perform…" Andy shuddered as he flew away, equipping a plunger from his inbuilt tool cabinet. Arthur laughed at the slightly deranged machine and walked over to Stanley who was also laughing at the Robot.

"I tell yah. Every time I fix the damn thing he goes and fly's into a wall or electrocutes himself. Every time I see him something's hanging off. Anyway kid, happy birthday!"

"Thanks Stanley, did you fix my pip boy yourself?"

"Yeah, I know some people say the A series is a bit basic, but I've always preferred them for their reliability. Here let me fit it onto you. It'll take a minute and you'll feel a sting, it's just the biometric seals going around, don't worry about it. Now hold tight son."

Stanley brought the Pipboy around Arthurs arm, it felt loose at first but Stanley pulled out a small multi-tool and inserted it into the console. The machine made a whirring noise as it slowly clamped around Arthurs forearm. At first it felt tight, and then it seemed to loosen slightly to a comfortable pressure, gripping lightly but firmly on Arthurs forearm. Then the machine beeped twice. Then a louder whirring sound activated and Arthur felt something pierce his skin underneath the pip boy.

"Arrrgh" Arthur cried.

"Don't worry son, it's just the sensors entering your arm. It will measure your heart rate and overall condition. Quite ingenious if you ask me. And 'ahem' I added some 'improvements' to yours. It tells your hydration and other such statistics, also there's a small port on the front where you can administer drugs and things straight to your blood stream, but you shouldn't know about those yet so for the meanwhile, its standard. Just get used to it kid, you can't get it off again." Stanley smiled at the cringing child.

"Oh and here, take your mind off pain" Stanley pulled out a baseball cap. Arthur took it with his undamaged right arm. He slid the interface glove over his left arm and admired his new 'responsibility'. He really did like his new Pipboy, but the pain was subtracting from the experience.

"Thanks Stanley" Arthur grimaced.

"Eh don't mention it son. Now go on, I'm sure there other people you need to talk to." Arthur nodded and walked off, clutching his gauntleted arm.

He walked over to the Overseer. He had hoped the Overseer had walked off in attendance to his duties, and so wouldn't have to navigate the minefield of possible discussion with him.

"Hello Overseer" Arthur stated as officially as possible.

"Ah hello young man. I hope you appreciate the effort Amata put into this party. She really seems to like you… for some reason." Arthur was expecting the usual "Happy birthday sport, or champ" or some such suffix, but he hadn't expected a lecture off the Overseer.

"Of course I do sir. Did you not help her?" he inquired. The Overseer took visible offense to the question, treating it more of an accusation.

"I do not allow the fact the fact that Amata is my daughter to compromise my position as overseer. I gave her all the appropriate paternal encouragement of course, but I could not contribute extra vault resources. That is simply what my position requires, no more no less. I know Amata understands that perfectly well."

The overseer stared at Arthur, and Arthur felt himself get shorter.

"Very well, I have to tend to my other guests, have a nice day, sir" Arthur said, replying to the Overseer's cold tone with his own attempted rendition. The Overseer simply turned away. Arthur walked off feeling dejected. Amata listened into the whole conversation, and she decided her father was out of order.

"Daddy" she commanded. "I know you were joking, but I'm not sure anyone else did" she said sternly. The overseer was mollified by his daughters comment. She had the real beginnings of a leader.

"Nonsense, people always love my speeches. Besides that friend of your is not all fun and games. Amata groaned in frustration.  
"This is meant to be a party! You know? Fun? You should try it sometime daddy, you might like it." She said sarcastically. She then went to sit down next to her father, not saying anything to him. In the background Arthur could hear Butch talking with his friends about cheese or something, he hadn't been paying enough attention to know, neither did he possess the incentive either, more than likely is was just Butch drivelling on.

Arthur walked away from the situation as quickly as he could. He saw the old lady "Mrs Palmer" walking over to him. She clearly wanted to wish him happy birthday. He had always liked Mrs Palmers; she was always kind and always tried to make him smile.

"Are you having a nice party?" She said smiling down at the boy. "Ten years old. My my…Seems like yesterday your daddy came here… Goodness listen to me ramble. Your waiting for your present aren't you?" She said. The comment about her father had confused Arthur, but put it down to an old ladies meandering conversational links.

"Oh Mrs Palmer, you didn't have to bring a present."

"Nonsense, what little boys don't like presents. I was ten once, believe it or not. The vault was practically crowed back then. Not like today, so few young people now"  
Arthur listened intently, his father had always taught him to respect his elders "They are worthy of your respect, because one day you will be the same as them and you will know why, you will see son" his father had told him."But here I am, rambling on again, and you listening so politely". Arthur gave a look as to say "it's not polite its interesting" though he would rather be talking to Amata.

"Here you go, a nice sweet role I baked for you just this morning." She took her hand out from her handbag and gave it to Arthur. Arthur was pleased by the present, he always like the baking of Mrs Palmer and took it politely.

"And it's all for you, no sharing required today!" she smiled as she went back to reading her magazine. Arthur pocketed the sweet and walked over to Amata to give her a piece of her cake when butch shouted up to him.

"The stupid robot destroyed the cake! Gimme that sweet role you got from old lady Palmer!" Arthur stood there surprised by butch and somewhat intimidated.

"I'm sorry butch, it contains intelligence, you wouldn't like it" Arthur replied.

"You little punk! I'm smarterer than you! Wait until I get hold of you" Butch leapt from his seat and chased after Arthur. Arthur had already ran from him as he rose from his seat and ran towards Officer Gomez. Officer Gomez stood from his seat.

"Butch! Stop right there! Now!"

His eyes frowned upon butch as butch looked to the floor, avoiding the glower of the officer. Gomez looked over to Arthur who was stood behind him for protection.

"Are you alright son?" he said warmly. "I hope butch didn't hurt you. Do you want to tell me what happened here?"

Arthur weighed up his choices. He knew butch already had 2 misdemeanours on his record and a third would mean he would go on curfew from four pm to 7 am the following morning for two whole months. Arthur was going to answer that he had provoked butch but then he realised that with butch gone, Amata and he could go up to the atrium or the playing halls without him pestering them. And there would be less confrontation so Arthur settled with the getting butch banned choice.

"Butch tried to take my sweet role" he said as innocently as possible, knowing full well that he was at least a little to blame.

"Why that little… I figured it was him who started it" Arthur felt a slight pang of guilt, but it served butch right."He's been nothing but trouble since the day he was born. Let me handle this and try to stay out of the way."

Officer Gomez walked over to butch and began issuing his butch his misdemeanour.

"Two months suspended privileges" Gomez started.

Arthur walked away having mixed feelings. At least butch would be gone for two whole months. Arthur walked over to Amata who had been talking with Stanley.

"Hi, I'm all done now want to go and play? I've got a sweet role we can share". Amata smiled back at Arthur.

"Sure! I just need to say goodbye to my daddy. I'll be right back."

Amata walked over to her father and said goodbye as the Overseer left the room. Amata walked back over.

"Okay he's gone. Want to play dwellers and wastelanders?"

"Sure, I'm the dwellers!"

Amata sighed "fine, but only because it's your birthday" she giggled.

They ran into the halls and begun pretend firing at each other. Arthur ran up the stairs and held his arms triumphantly.

"It's over Amata! I hold the high ground!" At that moment he heard the Overseers voice. Arthur signalled for Amata to come quietly. Above them on another flight of stairs stood the overseer talking to Officer Kendal.

"I only showed up for that brat that Amata is friends with. Give it a few more minutes then I want that place cleaned up and back to work. A waste of resources if you ask me"

"Yes sir"

Amata felt awful, she turned to Arthur who was clearly dejected by what he just heard. He looked as upset as he could be without crying. Amata stood there next to him unsure of what to do.

"Im sorry" she said quietly. "Its just that daddy is so official about everything. Im sure daddy didn't mean it" she knew he probably did and knew Arthur was thinking the same.

"Shall we go back to the canteen?" she asked

"Alright" Arthur replied.

They wandered back to the canteen, not a word spoken between them. Amata didn't know how to react, anything she said might elicit a bad response. Silence was the answer. They reached the canteen and found a seat and sat down in it.

"How was your day?" Amata finally asked.

"Its been good I guess. Got this sweet for us" Arthur said unwrapping the roll and breaking it in half for them both. "Butch wanted it from me. He has got two months curfew now."  
"Really haha?" Amata laughed. "Serves him right for being such a jerk. On your own birthday as well" she said indignantly.

"Its not all his fault" Arthur said. "He must have been born backwards" he joked, lightening his mood.

"Haha yeah, his face is the last thing anyone wanted to see" Amata joked. Amata had a way of making Arthur happy.

"I had better go and speak to my dad, he's probably wondering what I have got. I'll be back in a minute" Arthur said

"Okay I'll be here" she said as she started to eat her half of the role.

Arthur smiled back and walked towards his father. His father had been on the intercom and Arthur had heard Jonas' voice on the other end.  
"Hey" James started. "That was Jonas on the intercom. He and I have been cooking up a little surprise present. Jonas is waiting for you downstairs on the reactor level. I don't think anyone would mind if you slipped out for a few minutes" James suggested.

Arthur walked down the stairs and over the reactor rooms. Within stood Jonas waiting for him with a sly look across his face.

"Hello Jonas" Arthur said.

Jonas gave Arthur a questioning look "And what are you doing down here young man? I thought kids weren't allowed down on the reactor level…" he questioned, with false suspicion invading his face.

"My father told me to come down here and I'm not a child anymore Jonas!" Arthur said confused.

Jonas laughed at the comment "You sure aren't. Pipboy and everything, look at that! If you can wait just one more minute I think your father wants to give you the surprise himself" Jonas said, looking towards the stairs.

A moment later James walked down, holding something being his back.

"Are you ready for your surprise?" James asked inciting excitement into Arthur.

"What kind of surprise" Arthur asked.

"The overseer gave you your Pipboy and you're old enough to do some work, so I figured you're old enough for this, your own BB gun." James said proudly as he pulled the gun from behind his back. "It's a little old but it should work perfectly. Jonas found it down here; it was in pretty rough shape. Took us a good few months to find the parts to get it working again. You know how hard it is to find a spring that small?" James began laughing "It's a good job Butch 'misplaced' his switchblade. So what do you think?" James asked happily, proud of Jonas' find and his own work. "Want to give it a try" James hinted.

"Here? We can't shoot a gun here?" Arthur replied.

"We sure cant" James replied. "Unless we want the overseer beating down our door. Jonas and I have found a place though. Come on, it's in the service tunnels".

James said as he set off down one of the many side passages which littered the maintenance levels. They proceeded down a tunnel to find a makeshift shooting range, complete with self-resetting targets. Arthur was overjoyed, his father and Jonas had clearly put a lot of effort into his present, and Arthur knew it.

"Well, what do you think? You can come down here and shoot, anytime you want"

Arthur was amazed. How did the Overseer not find out about this? That was the amazing part of it all. He always knew everything.

"Thanks dad, this is great, I'll come down here all the time" Arthur said overjoyed.

"Couldn't have done it without Jonas' help" James said, looking back at Jonas who modestly waved him off. "You make sure to thank him".

Arthur walked over to Jonas. "Happy birthday buddy" he said happily.

"Thanks Jonas. I just want to say thank you, this is the best present ever".

"Hey you don't turn 10 every day! Now go on and let me see you shoot something!"

Arthur smiled as he turned around and took aim with his rifle. He cocked it once and fired at the target which let out a ring and span around. He aimed at the next one and fired again, hitting the mark in the centre, and did the same with the final one. Then Arthur heard a scurrying sound from the right and looked over. From the darkened passage came a radroach.

"Careful" James warned "that's a radroach, think you can handle it".

Arthur was slightly surprised by his father. He had always advocated calm and tactful decision making, but Arthur wasn't going to consult his morals over a radroach. He fired twice. The first round bounced harmlessly off the insect's carapace. Arthur adjusted, aiming into the gaps between the armour. He fired and the pellet went straight into the insect, killing it instantly.

"Good work. That's one less radroach to deal with." James beamed. "Let's get a picture together. Capture the moment." He said to his son smiling.

"Hey Jonas, get a picture with me and the big game hunter".  
Jonas nodded and retrieved his camera from the side. James stood by Arthur's side and put his arm on his shoulder. "Smile" Jonas said as the bright flash went off.

James looked down to his son.

"I hope you have had a good day. I know your mother would have been very proud of you," James said softly as he knelt down to his son's height. "Now, just don't go telling the overseer about this little secret okay?"

"Okay dad" Arthur replied "but can I show Amata? She won't tell the Overseer, I promise."  
James paused to think for a second.

"Okay but you must swear her to secrecy, the overseer mustn't know of this place, I'm sure it breaks all sorts of his 'rules and regulations'" James mocked.

"Thanks dad, you're the best" Arthur said as he hugged his father. James returned the gesture in kind. A BB gun, a shooting gallery and Butch gone for two months, this was turning out to be one of the best birthdays ever.


	2. A Cause For Concern

Semper Eadem

Arthur sat on the medical bed while his father rummaged through charts and graphs.

"Blood pressure… nominal… heart rate… consistent. What exactly did you say was wrong with you?" James questioned.

Arthur knew his options were limited. He needed to make himself sound ill but make the illness undetectable, no mean feat, harder still with the un-missing eyes of his father.

"I have a headache and I feel sick somewhat when I stand and read".

James pondered for a moment, though he knew Arthur was lying. Arthur rarely got ill and he had never complained about pain before either.

"Right I just need to do a few more tests then I can make a conclusion".

Arthur was beginning to suspect his father was onto him. He had been trying to avoid doing the G.O.A.T. all week. He had planned it out meticulously. Firstly, a week before the test he complained about stomach pains, amping up the complaints each day, bringing in more symptoms along with it. This, he hoped, would seem like his complaints were genuine. A fool proof plan he had once thought, but clearly it had a major flaw, he had never expected his father to do a full consultation on had clearly called his bluff. James reached down into his lab coat and pulled a ophthalmoscope from it. He held it up to Arthur's eye, not really inspecting it rather than making a show.

"As far as I can tell you're a perfectly healthy sixteen year old boy. So yes, you have to go to class to take your G.O.A.T. exam. Go on now, you've got a goat to take" he said encouragingly.

Arthur sat there as he realised his carefully orchestrated plan had fallen through.

"If I must" Arthur said grudgingly.

James took offense to this. He perceived Arthur to be blaming him. A state of affairs he wouldn't stand for.

"Hey, you're sixteen now so this year, you take the G.O.A.T., come on its not so bad. Everyone has to take it, you'll do just fine" James said reassuringly.

"Father, I am ill, you must believe me"  
Arthur regretted lying to his father but he was vehemently opposed to doing the test, designed for idiots by idiots.

"No, you're not" James said sternly. "Really. When I started learning medicine one of the first things I learn was how to spot a kid playing ill to get out of a test." James looked at his son, who was visibly nervous about the ordeal, while Arthur looked towards his father displaying a betrayed look.  
"You'll do fine, it's not so bad, and everyone has to take it when they're sixteen. I had to, you have to, and so does everyone else. And most everyone makes it through without a scratch."

"Very well" Arthur sighed. "Any last minute advise for the G.O.A.T.?"

James looked at his son with an amused face, clearly seeing the test as much a fiasco as his son. "The Generalised Occupational Aptitude Test. G.O.A.T.. Everyone in the vault takes it when they're sixteen. Helps to figure out what type of job you'll get when you're older. So, pay attention and try not to fall asleep. You know what the overseer says, "We're born in the vault... we die in the vault. Each is tested to determine their abilities so that they may work for the betterment of all vault residents"" James paused for a moment. "Huh, sound familiar?"

Arthur sat there; somewhat depressed by the fact he would never set his foot against organic soil, opposed to the chemically similar but not real soil in the atrium.

"Is it a fact that I have to die in the vault? There no alternative to death in the tunnel? Is there no way we can leave?" he questioned.

James tried to suppress such rebellious tendencies; the Overseer would never stand for such insolence.

"That's not the way it works. And it won't do to go around asking questions like that, especially around the Overseer." James looked sternly upon his son. "I want to tell you something now, its important, so listen closely; this place, this… vault, its not perfect I know but it is your home. You're safe here. Stay on the Overseers good side and you always will be. You understand? You need to appreciate all you have. Because, what's up there. That's not the life I want for you, and it's not what your mother wanted for you either".

"Are you certain everyone was born in the vault dad?" Arthur asked.

James was slightly perturbed by this question. It felt like Arthur was after a certain answer or truth, but he couldn't know. Could he? James replied carefully and slowly

"That's what the Overseer says doesn't he? He's not about to let anyone else in so I guess that's how it's going to have to be. You're here now and it's a hell of a lot better than being out there. All your mother and I ever wanted was for you to be safe, and you're safe here." James said with a touch of finality.

Arthur sat there taking in his words. To him the way he was wording his sentences made it sound like there was people who came into the vault, aside from the original residents, but he pushed the thought aside.

"Dad, we can talk about my mum, you know?" Arthur said carefully.

James stopped all motion for a moment as he thought back to his wife.

"She … She was beautiful" James had averted his eyes, looking slightly left and down from Arthur, clearly lost in thought. "But beyond any beauty you've ever seen. There's just so much those old photos can never show." James knew he was doing her no justice by his words, and he knew words could never describe her as perfectly as she was. "And she was passionate, passionate about life, about love. But most of all, most of all she was passionate about you. When she became pregnant it was the happiest I had ever seen her." James lost himself deep in thought. "She had great things in mind for you…" James suddenly realised that he was carrying on this chat longer than he had expected. "And so" he gently snapped from his thoughts. "Time for you to get to class. Son, please take these achievement tests seriously. The last thing I need is your mothers ghost haunting me because her only child became a.. a.. a garbage burner."

"Alright dad. I'll do my best. Ill see you later" Arthur said as he slid off the bed and walked through the door. He saw Jonas and said hello.

"Oh hey there sport, not seen you around here in a while" Jonas said.

"Ive been busy with revision for this damned G.O.A.T.." Arthur said bitterly.

Jonas laughed, remembering his exam. "Haha don't worry about it Arthur, whatever happens, happens. Look I gotta run but good luck today. Tell me how it goes" Jonas said as he manoeuvred to leave.

"I certainly will." Arthur said as he walked from the room.

He walked to class looking out for Amata. She had agreed to meet him in the morning and they would go to class together. He was still looking out for Amata when he neared the classroom. From the corridor he could hear butch around the corner, laughing at some stupid remark. Arthur stopped and placed his back to the wall and approached the corner, keeping out of sight.

"I can show you a real tunnel snake Amata" Arthur heard.

That had to be butch, only he could make such a crass comment. Arthur knew instantly what was happening and he knew Amata couldn't deal with them on her own. Arthur took a breath and decided to intervene. Arthur wasn't particularly strong, but neither was he weak. He had a slim, tall figure that lacked the muscles of butch but contained the same level of strength. He rounded the corner and walked over to Amata who was giving him a desperate look.

"Oh look, it's the book worm" Butch said aggressively.

Arthur simply smiled and said "Good morning butch, I trust that infection you had has passed now? It looked rather serious when my father showed me. Horrible colour of green one might observe."  
Arthurs comment sent butch recoiling. He was commenting upon the infection butch had picked up on his upper thigh. Arthur had seen his file one day when he came in to see his dad at the surgery.

"Bullshit. You don't know anything! Lover boy here is just making shit up." Butch defended.

Arthur knew he had him on the ropes. "Do tell me butch, does it still itch? That cream my father gave you was potent stuff" Arthur stated dryly.

"You little shit, I'd kick the shit out of you if Mr 'Crotch' wasn't in there now. C'mon boys, this little bitch isn't worth our time" Butch retaliated as he walked away with his goons in suit.

"How original of you Butch, inspired, truly. Have a nice day" Arthur said victoriously. He was grinning widely as he turned to Amata who had a similar look on her face.

"God what a bunch of assholes" She said surpassing the urge to laugh. "Does he really have that thing?" She inquired hoping for a yes.

"Oh but of course. The most grotesque thing you will ever see. You should know Amata, I never tell a lie" he joked.

"Haha I know but, well, sounded made up. I guess he will be avoiding us for a while" she smiled.

"I certainly hope so. However we have a test to take" he said ending the laughs. "We had better go; we don't want to miss it. Ladies first" he said as he gestured with his arm. Amata giggled a little and walked through.

"Morning Mr Brotch" Arthur said unhappily.

Mr Brotch sighed "Well you made it. All set for the G.O.A.T.?" he asked.

"Is it really necessary that we do this test? I mean it's hardly a good principle to base one test on the rest of our lives? What if, god forbid, Butch flukes it and becomes the overseer?" Arthur questioned.

Mr Brotch laughed. "Between you and me kid, if that happened id rig it so he'd be on cleaning duty for the rest of his life haha. Come on, don't worry I'm sure you'll be fine. Test is about to start so take a seat and we'll start in a minute. Arthur replied with a simple okay and took his seat. He sat there worrying about his future; he didn't want to let his father down. He had prepared but no amount of preparation can prepare you for the unknown.

Mr Brotch took his place at the head of the classroom and cleared his though.

"Now that everyone has managed to find the classroom we can finally get started. No talking, and keep your eyes to yourselves." From the back of the room Arthur could hear Butch laughing. "Yes I'm taking to you Mr DeLoria."

"Sure thing Mr Brotch" Butch replied sweetly. "If anyone else has an insightful comment, let's get started."  
Arthur looked down to his paper which was a simple multiple choice tick box style exam.

"Awfully simple to be writing my life upon it" Arthur thought negatively.

"Question one, a frenzied vault scientist runs up to you and yells "I'm going to put my quantum Harmoniser in your photonic resonation chamber." What do you do?"  
Arthur looked at the paper bewildered. "What an absurd question. Who in god's earth would come across that situation?"  
Arthur looked at the paper and saw the answers. It was ridiculous. The answers were either blatantly obvious or ridiculously immature. Arthur decided to go with the more intelligent approach and answer the questions which seemed the most logical. One question prompted the decision "throw grannies tea in her face" made Arthur think this test had been written by butch himself. Arthur passed through the tests questions, coming to question ten. As if coming from Dictatorship International itself, the final question gave an applause to the overseer and gave only one option. Well there was to be no other options in the one party state that was Vault 101. However Arthur was tempted to write his father's name down. The Overseer had never saved anyone's life, but his father certainly had. "Aptitude tests my arse" thought Arthur as he rose from his seat. Arthur glanced over to Amata and gave her a weary look. She responded in kind. They walked over to Mr Brotch who was sat at his desk, marking Butches paper.

Mr Brotch was clearly enjoying himself. "Hairdresser! Who wouldda thunk it?" he said happily.

"You're so full of it!" Butch briefly protested as he walked off.

Next in line was Amata.

"Here you are Mr Brotch". "Ah Miss Almodovar. My top student. Let me see."

Mr Brotch paused as he looked over the paper.

"Just as I thought, you're on the supervisory track. Am I looking at the next Overseer? I think so. Congratulations."

"Oh wow" Amata said genuinely surprised. "Thank you Mr Brotch". Amata said happily.

"Not a problem" he replied. Arthur walked up to the desk.

"Here you are sir." Arthur passed the paper down to him. Mr Brotch looked at the paper for a second.

"Congratulations Mr Wellesley. Vault Medical Intern. You'll be working with your father and Jonas. A result to be proud of."

Arthur was pleasantly surprised too. "Oh thank you sir. This is the best result I could have asked for. Thank you" He said as he trailed after Amata.

Amata had heard the whole thing and was smiling at him as he approached. "Hey well done" she said, giving him a hug. He returned In kind, but with his own uncomfortable rendition. A hug with fists clenched shut. Arthur was superficially comfortable around women but physical contact with them made him uncomfortable. He was never really at ease with Amata on a physical level, though he prized her like no other. He had feelings for her, no doubt. He loved her platonically. But he couldn't help but feel attracted to her. She was beautiful in every sense of the word. She had loving hazel eyes. She had a face like no other person in the vault but above all, her personality was second to none. She was funny, charming, intelligent and she cared for Arthur like no other. Arthur was a remarkably stoic character, not really showing his personality on every day correspondence with anyone but Amata. She was his emotional crutch and he was hers. They shared everything between themselves and guarded the other from harm, no matter what form it came in. He loved her as a friend and maybe more. But he could never admit it. Not to her or anyone else. There were too many variables involved. After all, what if she didn't feel the same way? They walked down to the canteen and found a seat. It was deserted. This time of the day everyone was working 'for the betterment of all Vault residents'.  
They sat opposite each other and began talking about their results.

"You must be pleased with your results… Ma'am" Arthur joked.

Arthurs English dialect showed through again, pronouncing ma'am with longer a's than the American version. Amata looked at him.

"Well I could get used to this. No wonder my father is so power hungry" she laughed.

"Perhaps madam would like a drink?" Arthur offered.

"Oh why I would be most appreciable for such an offer" she replied.

"Then allow me to oblige you ma'am" he said as he walked over to the counter.

It was clear the two were flirting with each other, but both would deny it. Amata felt the same way about Arthur as he did her. She relied upon him more than her own father. He was tall, handsome and was soon to be in the second most illustrious internship in the vault, behind her of course. Amata knew she fancied Arthur. His eyes always seemed so attractive and his mysterious façade that only she knew how to penetrate gave him a romantic appeal like no other. However she placed Arthur's personality above his looks. He was modest, well mannered, polite but mysterious about nearly everything he did. He was incredibly intelligent, shown by his new vault position and the way he carried himself in such a dignified manner and his English accent served only to increase Amata's opinion of him. Arthur returned to the table passing her an orange juice with a little umbrella in it.

"For a special occasion" he laughed.

"Thanks," she said. "I bet your father will be happy with the result" she said sipping on her drink.

"Oh but of course. I know he would deny it but any job other than his would have disappointed him. Damned good luck though. That test was a farce. I've never seen such a shocking thing in all my life" he said.

Amata nodded "yeah it is pretty bad. Don't worry though, when I'm overseer ill reform the whole system" she nudged Arthur.

"Good, we need someone with a conscience to run this place, instead of someone who is obsessed with numbers and statistics" he said looking at her eyes.

She smiled back. "I can't believe that Butch has got the job of a hairdresser. Justice for once" she said bitterly.

Arthur laughed probably a bit too much at the thought of butch plaiting and braiding hair. "Perhaps he can experiment with your hair. Im sure he will do a stellar job" he jested.

"I don't get why he's such an ass to us both?" Amata said.

"Probably because we're such good friends. If you got picked on I wouldn't stand for it and it would implement me with you. Not that I mind of course." He suggested. Amata thought this over and agreed with him.

"I just wish he would piss off with his tunnel snakes. Im sick of them. Its not like I can use my father to get at him either. What because im the Overseers daughter I get some special treatment? No, I don't get anything but more abuse from that dickhead."

Arthur could see Amata was getting worked up. He extended his hand onto hers, a bold gesture for someone who actively avoided hugs.

"Don't worry about it. If we let those gibbons annoy us all the time we would be debarred from being ourselves. A state of affairs I'm keen to avoid."  
Amata knew Arthur was right.

"I guess your right, but still. Anyway, thank you. I know I get worked up but its just infuriating that I cant do anything about it." She said.  
Arthur smiled back

"Perhaps we could spread some of those pictures of butches leg. Its ghastly stuff I assure you." He nefariously suggested.

Neither of them had noticed but Arthurs hand was still on Amata's. He looked down at it and quickly retracted it. He stood up and indicated towards the door, keen to avoid the awkwardness which ensued.

"Come on, we should tell our fathers of what we have been allocated. Im sure they will be happy. Who knows, we might even be allocated 'extra vault resources, maybe even a cake!'" Arthur joked.

Amata laughed and walked alongside him, walking towards James office.

* * *

2 Years Later

Arthur sat at his desk looking over the data they had pulled from the biopsy. He was trying to find out if the growth was malignant or not. If It was it would be big trouble for Stanley. He sat there pouring over the charts one after the other. It wasn't cancer, but it was dangerous, whatever it was. James father was somewhat confused about it too. He had Arthur spend the last week pouring through medical text books with Jonas trying to find some mention of it. Arthur had been a intern at the surgery for the past two years and was faring well. Under his father guidance he had become a talented proto-doctor and was picking the profession up fast. Impressing his father and Jonas greatly.

"Any luck?" His father said over his shoulder.

"Not as yet" Arthur said still staring at the charts. "I don't know what it is, I don't think its inherently dangerous as it is, but if it obstructs something in his oesophagus or trachea then he will have a problem. It explains why his breathing has been so sporadic but I can't find out what the growth is, if its harmful or if it will return. I think we should run a radioactive solution through him and track the passage of blood, maybe it has a connection." Arthur stated.

"Good idea, but before we start messing around with radioactive compounds I want to know if it's going to return or not. Take a brake pal. Have the day off, you've been working hard these past few days."

Arthur sat back in his chair and finally looked to his father. "Alright then. For today. I'll come back in later and check up on him."

"Alright son, I'll see if I can't find any relation. See you later." With that Arthur stood up and walked out of the surgery. He looked at his Pipboy and used the inbuilt messaging service to message Amata.

"I've been freed from work for today. Are you free? I could use with a chat."

Arthur sent the message and walked down to his quarters. He walked into his bedroom and got changed out of his medical equipment and into his vault suit. He sat down on his bed and looked at his Pipboy. He had no reply off Amata and it had been twenty minutes since he messaged her. She must have been working on her projects. He decided that there was no point in wasting time and opened his Pipboy's medical files. He began to scroll through every known ailment, trying to find a match to Stanley's condition.

* * *

Amata was by her father looking over the stocks of the vault.

"We must ration the water from 6 litres ration per day down to 3 per day per head. The filtration system is simply not up to the task of producing such quantities of water without the maintenance of Stanley. And judging by the competence of James and his staff, he will be absent from his role for a long time." the Overseer said to Amata who was scribbling notes down onto the notepad she had.

Her father sat at his desk dictating to her.

"See to it that the sixteen operational filtration units are maintained by the remaining staff. They may lack the competence of Stanley but their actions should avert any major problems for the meanwhile".

"Im done now father. Is there anything else?" she asked politely. The Overseer paused for a moment.

"Have you sent security teams to Butch DeLoria's room with a search warrant?" he asked.

"Yes father. They are scheduled to arrive at 05:00 hours tomorrow morning" she stated looking at one of the notes.

"Ah excellent. I must admit Amata, you are surpassing my expectations. I make sure that people who act in the vaults interests are well rewarded. You may have the day off if you so choose" he said, clearly thinking the gesture was an act of magnanimity.

"I would father. I shall have my report on the DeLoria raid ready for you tomorrow at 13:00. Goodbye" she stood up and walked towards the door. She had been working hard for the past few days. Stanley had contracted some illness and without his irreplaceable skills there was something of a miniature crisis regarding supplies and her father needed her help drafting in the extra manpower. She looked at her Pipboy and saw she had a message from Arthur. It had been sent nearly an hour earlier. She read it and messaged back.

"Hi, I've been given the day off too. I'm free now if you still are?".

She hoped he was, she hadn't seen Arthur for nearly two days and missed him. Barely a minute later she felt her Pipboy buzz. Arthur had replied.

"I'm still free now. Shall I meet you in my quarters?"

She replied with "Yeah okay. I'll be there in a moment".

She stopped for a second, looking at her reflection in the mirror and seeing the tired eyes of an overworked employee. I'll have to get some sleep she thought to herself. God knows what Arthur will think.

She found Arthurs quarters and let herself in. Arthur was sat on his bed looking equally exhausted. He glanced up at her, the two meeting weary eyes.

"Good day, come in. You well and truly look spent" he said sympathetically.

"Yeah, my father's been making me work three hours overtime each day for the past week."

Arthur looked at her, she really did look tired. "You can have a sleep in my bed if you want. I know if you go back to yours the overseer will accuse you of slacking, rather than using your recreational time 'productively'" he mocked.

Amata found the offer tempting. "No I couldn't, its your bed plus you look as if you need it as much as I".

Arthur shook his head.

"No, honestly I insist. Please, ill get you a drink and you can have a sleep. Don't worry about it; I'll sleep on a chair or find some other such arrangement."

Amata found it strange that Arthur never liked being in close personal contact with even her.

"You know we can just share the bed together?" she hinted. She wasn't meaning sexually, she was merely trying to get Arthur to break his rule of contact. Arthur,however, looked more than a little shocked by this proposal.

"I couldn't possibly, what would the others say and think? Who knows what they will postulate" he said indignantly. "No a chair is fine for me" he said stating his ground.

"Oh come on Arthur. You know nothing's going to happen like that. The rooms out of view and no one will come in. I couldn't sleep in the bed while your on the chair. Please, for me." She pleaded.

Arthur thought about it. He was tired and the bed was inviting, and with Amata there it would be a comfort. But his body resisted. "You need to get over this irrational habit Arthur" he thought.  
"Very well. I will share the bed with you." He said defeated.

"Good. I told you I would break these bad habits of yours." she said triumphantly.

"Being a gentleman is no bad habit" he retorted but inside he knew it was petty. Plus, who knew, this could be a start of something that he could use to tell Amata how he truly felt about her. He walked into his small kitchen and brought in two glasses of water for the both of them. They both drank thirstily.

"Oh there's a water ration restriction for the foreseeable future. Better stock up. Its in effect on Monday.

"Bloody hell, I won't be able to have a shower now" Arthur said. "Damn it all, you'll just have to put up with me smelling" he joked.

"As if I don't already" Amata said teasing him. They both passed smiles between each other.

"Come on then, I'm exhausted, let's get some sleep" Amata said.

They both lay down on the bed, under the sheets. Arthur was keen to place a sizable amount of land between the two of them but Amata shuffled closer each time he moved away.

"Your bloody persistent. Did you know that" he said grumpily.

"Oh but of course" she said mocking his accent.

She leant over and kissed him on the cheek softly, something she had never done before, and closed her eyes as her head touched the pillow again, smiling slightly. Arthur would have thought it through to no end, analysing every detail of her action but he was drifting to sleep before he could say anything, and so was she.

* * *

Arthur woke up from his dreamless sleep. The room was stifling. The radiator was turned off but it was throwing out a large amount of heat. Arthur looked over to Amata who was still fast asleep, but looking quite sweaty. He decided to take her blanket off her to cool her down and set about trying to fix the radiator. Usually Stanley fixed such problems but he wasn't around for the time being. Plus arthur had a working knowledge of the vaults systems, enough to know that the water used in cooling the reactor was also used to heat the vault. He knelt down to the radiator. The valve has probably gone in it. He thought. He tried tightening the screw which led into the valve but nothing happened. Defeated, he reached up to the ceiling and switched on the air conditioning. He looked at his Pipboy, it was five o'clock which meant they had been asleep for two hours. Arthur usually hated naps, he always woke up slightly confused and felt like he had missed part of the day. He looked over to Amata who was in the process of waking up.

"Good evening" he said, looking into her red eyes.

She squinted at the light "What time is it?" she croaked.

"Just gone five. My father is probably wondering where we are" he said.

Amata stood up unsteadily and walked over to Arthur.

"We should go and find him, we should check up on stanley as well."

"Good idea" Arthur admitted as they set off out of the room and down to the surgery.

"Did you sleep okay?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah apart from you waking me up by kicking me twice"she said.

"Well it was your idea "he said defensively."

"I know. But yes I did. Thank you. Did you?"

"I don't particularly like siestas but it was okay as far as they go… aside from you hoarding the blanket" he joked.

"Hey! I don't hoard anything! Its not my fault you sleep like a frog…"  
Arthur was going to reply when suddenly the vault shook slightly. Little particles of dust fell from the sealing, coating the two in a fine layer of powder.

"What was that?" Amata asked slightly worried.

"I haven't the foggiest" he replied. "My father might know" he said.

They walked at a slightly quicker pace to his office. They found his father sat at his desk looking around the room.

"Did you feel that too?" he asked them.

"Yes. We don't know what it is" Amata replied.

Stanley stumbeled over from his bed in the recovery room. "Amata, Arthur, I need you to go down to the reactor level and check everything is alright." He said pale faced. "when you get there message me what you find. Check the computer and type in "Rslt 481516". That's a systems check. Tell me what it says please. And hurry."

Arthur typed in the code into his Pipboy and nodded.

"Do you know what that was?" James asked urgently.

"No I don't. But I just want to be sure" Stanley replied, clearly trying to reassure James.

"Alright, we'll go now. Ill open communications when we are down there" Arthur said as he hurried out with Amata.

James stood in the room silently with Jonas and Stanley.

"I think it's the power." Stanley said. "I don't think the power was regulated enough. Only Andy is down there at the moment. Who knows whats happened" he said distressed.

* * *

Amata and Arthur ran down the hall way and down the flights of stairs approaching the reactor. They could see thick white steam billowing out from the room adjacent. In the corner of the room was andy, struggling to work the reactor.

"Andy. What's going on here?" Arthur demanded.

"Ah Master Wellesley. All is well I trust? The same cannot be said about this situation here I lament to say. There's rather a dire situation unfolding at the moment. You see, I have been tasked with monitoring the reactor; certainly I don't mind my new task, I think Chief engineer suits me rather well. Don't you agree? Regardless, it would appear that I am underqualified for such a role. There was slight… catastrophic problem with the coolant systems. It would appear that the coolant backed up in the pipes and has caused a "Water hammer" effect."

"What's a water hammer?" Arthur asked hastily.

Amata knew what it was, she had been studying all the systems of the vault for the past year.

"It's when the water comes into contact with a super-hot object and expands so quickly it acts like an explosion" She said to Arthur with a degree of urgency.

"Correct Miss Almodovar. I must say you are turning into rather the competent administrator. I must inform Sir that while the reactor itself is fully operational; it would appear that the damage has caused substantial damage to the filtration system, as the emergency ventilation systems redirect water to the filters to ease pressure on the reactor."

Arthur pushed past Andy and ran up to the console. He typed in Rslt 481516 into the command prompt and waited. The machine replied with. "Status: Critical. Reactor offline. Backup generators activated. 10 of the 16 major operational filters are inoperable. Pressure build up in pipe systems 21-56 65-95. Seek your nearest Vault Tech maintenance chief. Code 28"

"Andy, how do we stop this?" Arthur urged.

"Don't look at me. I'm not a mechanic, I'm a butler."

Arthur quickly messaged Stanley the consoles readings. As soon as he sent the message Arthur could here loud, metallic explosions going off in the vault. Amata and

Arthur looked at Amata with a dire look on his face, which she returned in kind.

* * *

Stanley was sat on his bed waiting for their reply nervously. He wished there was someone else on hand to investigate other than Arthur and Amata but the rest of his staff were working on a method of using gas to eliminate the rad roaches in the ventilation systems. He sighed, he hoped Andy hadn't broken something. Parts were scarce down in the vault.

James walked over to Stanley with a worried expression on their face."Do you think its serious?" he asked.

"Hopefully not. The diagnostic will tell us what's happened. Hopefully its something Andy can sort out. If not, ill have to go down."

James looked at his patient cautiously. "You have to be careful. The operation was quite serious and I don't want any further damage from strenuous activities. You're not in any state to be working" James advised.

Stanley was about to reply when there was a loud creaking noise above their heads. The pipes in the ceiling were distorting slowly. Jonas came out from his office.

"Er doc. I don't mean to trouble you but the radiator is leaking water".

Jonas saw the two of them staring at the pipes in the ceiling. He watched too as he saw the pipes bulge around the seams.

"This is not good…" Stanley said ominously.

At that moment there were six distinct explosions from elsewhere in the vault. All three of them looked around as they saw water gushing from the ceiling. Then they heard the cries of injured people. In all they could hear at least ten people calling for help. In the background they heard even more explosions and with a brief glance to one another James and Jonas ran from the room trying to find those in need of help. Stanley sat on his bed, begging for Arthur's diagnostic report to come through. He heard more explosions going off down the hall and more cries. He quickly rose to his feet and inserted a Stimpack into the modified medical port he had made and injected it into himself. He wasn't just going to sit here while people were injured. He walked as fast as he could out to the hallway and saw Jonas carrying a resident back to the surgery with a cut on his face bleeding profusely. Stanley jogged to a room and helped a woman who was trapped underneath the remains of a pipe. The pipe had burst in the middle and was still hot to the touch, but Stanley bit his teeth and wrenched the pipe off her and carried her to the surgery, causing great harm to himself in the process.

He placed the woman down on the floor and looked at his Pipboy. Arthur had messaged him. "Code 28". The pipes were going to explode, or rather continue to. There was too much pressure in the system. He needed Arthur to release the systems emergency flood gates.

* * *

Arthur felt his arm vibrate and he received Stanley's reply. Amata looked at him unsteadily. By now the entire console which surrounded the reactor was ablaze with warning lights and sirens blared in their ears producing a terrifying morass of blinding light and deafening screams.  
"Go to the filtration room now and open up the emergency override box. In there you will find a handle. Its currently in passive. Pull the handle towards the right until it is in open. Hurry. The system can't take much more of the pressure!", the message read.

Arthur looked up at Amata. "Do you know where the floodgate override switch is? "he asked calmly. Amata nodded. "Good, I need you to go there now and find the override box. Turn the switch from passive to open. I'm going to stay here and keep the coolant from entering the reactor. Hurry and be careful, after that I don't know what is going to happen so be careful" he said tensely.

Amata ran from the room and over to the other end of the maintenance floor. She ran into the filter room which by now was flooded waste deep with brown rusted water. She waded through viewing the carnage which was all around her. Of the twenty filtration systems four were already offline for maintenance, at least 6 were on fire and 3 were missing almost entirely. The damage was catastrophic. She neared the switch box and opened it, finding the override switch. She grabbed the handle and pulled to the right. The stiff switch wouldn't move.  
In a desperate panic she picked up a piece of metal flotsam and began hitting the handle to the right. Inch by inch it moved until it swung around and activated. The room went dark and Amata heard a small electric motor start up. A flashing orange light illuminated the room and a siren started up. Not knowing what to do Amata stepped back towards the door. Amata could hear the explosions stop, but she was unsure of what was about to happen. Then from the corner of her eye she spotted a large grate built into the wall open up and the water began to drain out.  
Amata felt relived as it drained from waist height to knee depth. Amata felt her Pipboy buzz. She looked at it; it was a message from Arthur. She opened it and read it. "GET OUT OF THERE!"  
Amata was confused to say the least, the water was receding, there was no threat.  
She looked around and began walking towards the door. She heard Arthur running down the corridor shouting for her. A loud roar started behind her, she turned around and looked at a large opening of a pipe across from her. The roar grew louder and louder. She panicked at the sound and began wading towards the door as fast as she could. But it was too late.  
The pipe ejected hundreds of gallons of water in a second, all highly pressurised, into the room, catching Amata in the back. She was forced over and under the water. She began scrambling for air as the currents bashed her about the room.

Arthur arrived at the door and watched Amata be pulled under. He dived in after her, gashing his hand open on a sharp corner of what was once a filtration unit. He ignored the pain as much as he could as he swam to Amata. She was badly winded from the force of the water and was gasping for air by the time Arthur had reached her. He grabbed her by the hand and together they began swimming towards the door. By now the water was already shoulder height. They struggled to the door, being dragged under once or twice by the current in the process.

Arthur gripped the door by its frame. The door was four feet above the ground, and steps lead down into the room. The water was flowing through the door and Arthur pushed Amata into the outward current, which dragged her out of the flooding room. Arthur did the same to himself as he careened out of the doorway and into the hall. He dragged himself to the door against the force of the oncoming water which was slamming against his torso and pressed the airtight close button on the doors console. The door slid shut and the water quickly dissipated into the small grids lining the corridor.

They both sat there for a minute, regaining their breath. Amata was totally incapacitated. She was bleeding on her arms and legs. She had bruised her face and broken a rib as well as a fractured right arm. Her left leg had a large cut running from her knee to her calf.  
Arthur fared little better. He had a laceration on the side of his right hand which would need stiches. He had managed to puncture his right thigh on a piece of loose rebar and had smashed his nose on the concrete floor while he span out of the room leaving it bloodied and swollen.

"Are you okay?" Arthur asked concerned, looking at her wounds.

"Not really, my leg is killing and my chest and arm feel broken" she said greatly distressed.

She looked at Arthur and saw his battered face. "Are you okay? You look dreadful" she said upset, blaming herself.

"Oh don't mind me. I can live with this. Let's get you back, I'll have a look at your ribs and leg." He said gently, greatly reassuring her.  
Amata was hugely grateful for him. She would have died without him there.

"You saved me… thank you" she said softly. Arthur looked at her eyes and saw that despite her injuries, she was still beautiful.

"Well, it would appear you saved the vault, and by extension, me. So thank you" he insisted.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look rather pale. " She asked concerned for him.

Arthur smiled a little. "It's not an experience I would like to recreate" he joked modestly. "Now come on, we should get you looked at."


	3. Partner Of My Labours

Semper Eadem

James was running about hectically. He had administered at least seventy does of his limited supply of Stimpacks, almost all of his MedX supply was gone and he was resorting to using a mixture of one part MedX to seven parts water in the hope of some form of placebo effect with a little touch of genuine effect. There were roughly thirty people spread across his surgery and ten of which were critically wounded. Jonas was helping as much as he could, running errands and tending to the critically wounded. James had hoped Arthur had returned by now. He was worried about his son. He had wanted to talk to Stanley but he had gone to the overseer's office to access the main controls to avert any further disaster. The overseer on the other hand was nowhere to be seen.

"So much for a conspicuous leader" James thought. It had been a good half an hour since Arthur had gone off with Amata and fifteen since the explosions had stopped. The explosions themselves where what had caused the majority of the damage. The shards of pipe acted as shrapnel, entering people's bodies all over and one by one James had to remove each fragment from each patient. James had hoped Arthur could return soon, he needed all the trained hands he could get. James himself had been wounded, receiving a good scattering of shrapnel along his back when a pipe burst apart behind him. In all, James and Jonas were containing the situation, barely. The floors were wet and bloodied and the constant screams of in pain patients was a moral sapping force which they worked through, tending to the critical and the needy, but supplies were short and the water supply had gone dry. It was looking desperate, no matter how James tried to cut the cards.

* * *

Arthur held Amata's arm around his neck. They were both in a serious state but they needed to get back to the surgery. There Arthur could stitch up Amata's leg and look at her arms and ribs. She had since gone very faint. She had lost a lot of blood, two pints and a bit in all Arthur reckoned. They came to the final flight of stairs and began the ascent. Amata could barely walk by now and struggled to hold onto Arthur. He lifted her as much as he could manage, trying to stop Amata using any force. Through fear of her being exhausted he picked her up in both arms and walked the remainder of the stairs. Her face by now was almost white. She had sweat beading off her forehead and Arthur was worried she would go into shock. He reached the top of the stairs and carried her down the hall to the surgery. He could hear the cries of the wounded which made him pause. Would there be space for Amata? Were there any medical supplies left? Arthur had to do something, but was the equipment there to do anything with? He reached the surgery and pushed his way past several people queuing for aid. His father saw him. It was a frightening sight. His clothing was ripped and drenched in his own blood and that of Amata's. His face was battered and his hand was bleeding badly. He rarely looked troubled but his face screamed distress, and James knew it wasn't for himself.

"Dad. She needs help. She's got a laceration down her leg and she's lost a lot of blood. She keeps losing conciseness and I'm worried she's going into shock. I need you to help me to help her." Arthur Begged.

James nodded. "Okay, follow me. Put her down on my desk" James replied.

The two walked into James office. James cleared his desk and Arthur lay Amata down on it.

"I'm going to need a blood pack; A positive. And a Stimpack or two if you have any spare. I will need a needle and thread and antiseptic." Arthur said trying to control his nerves.

James pulled out a small medical kit from under his desk. "In case of emergencies" he said wearily. "Arthur, listen; I need to help those people out there. You will have to do this yourself. When you're done come and find me, you need to help me help everyone else. Listen, don't let your emotions get in the way of the right thing. Okay?"

Arthur nodded "She is more valuable than anyone out there to me. She will get from me what she needs" Arthur replied coldly. "But I will help them after I have helped her"

James nodded knowing that Arthur cared deeply for Amata. James exited the room as Arthur set about his ablations. He washed his hands as quickly as he could and put on his lab coat. He stood over her body and made a mental list of what he needed to do. He set up an IV drip into her arm and placed a blood drip in her too. He then set about closing her leg would. He cut the fabric away from her leg as to reveal the full damage, it was more extensive than he had originally though, at least twice as deep. He began by pouring the alcohol into the wound and removing any debris in there. He then stitched up the wound; twenty in total.

He couldn't do anything about her broken ribs. He didn't even know if they were broken, he didn't have access to the X-ray machine. He strapped her arm around her chest, immobilising it for the time being. After this he stopped, and wondered what else to do. He stood there, looking at her face. He extended his arm to hold hers. She was still unconscious but at least he had stabilised her. He stood there for a minute, hoping she would be okay and holding her hand tightly. She had to be. Arthur turned towards the door and existed the room after bandaging his hand and set about helping Jonas and his father with the backlog of wounded. He noted with some happiness that Butch was crying on the floor over a small burn on his wrist. But Arthurs mind constantly thought about Amata, an unwelcome distraction, he knew, among the chaos of the worst disaster the Vault had ever suffered through.

* * *

Amata awoke several days later in the surgery, on a bed in the corner of the room. She attempted to sit up but she couldn't, immobilised from the severe pain in her side. She looked around the room, trying to find the on duty doctor. She looked to her side and spotted Arthur on a chair besides her. He was asleep in a position which couldn't have been good for his health, let alone comfortable. He looked awful. His nose was swollen and he had dark patches under his eyes.

"He's hardly left your side for four days" James voice had been in his office and saw Amata's movements when he decided to come out.

"Is he okay? He doesn't look well" she said forlornly.

"Well physically, no. I had to force feed him the other day and it's the first time he's slept in three days properly. But that's just who he is. Loyal to the end." James said, proud of his foolish son. "However if he keeps this up he'll be in the same place as you are. How are you feeling?" James asked.

"My side really hurts when I move" She grunting at the exertion of trying to move herself onto a more upright position on the bed.  
James nodded knowingly  
"You've broken two ribs. There isn't much we can do other than let them heal. You've also fractured your right arm and you've got a large cut on your leg. Arthur did all the repair work himself. He's done a fine job" James revealed.

Amata was shocked. Arthur really had looked after her. She felt awful for not being able to help him. He looked worse than he ever had and it was clear he had not been looking after himself. He had stitched up Amata's leg but not his own hand which had a dried blood mark seeping through. Amata peered down at her own leg. There were bandages carefully wrapping the tender skin and they were recently changed, given away by the lack of blood seeping through.

"Why does he do this? I mean, why me? Why does he look out for me so much?" she questioned.

"Isn't it obvious? James implied. "Arthur… has a set of rules he lives by. He will put you above himself no matter what. He would do the same for me as well; because he cares about us so much. He doesn't show his emotions much, I know, but you can see them through his actions. Amata, I'm not going to tell you how he feels about you, but his actions speak for themselves".

Amata was taken aback by this, she had always knew Arthur cared for her, but she thought he thought of her more of a sister than what James was implying. James stood up and spoke to her.

"If you're wondering your father is okay. The water filtration systems are online but heavily rationed. Only six units are working at the moment but Stanley is working on getting the other operational, but it will take time. The pipes which carry water around are mostly destroyed, I've got a back full of metal to prove it now and its going to take about four months of extra work to reconnect everything, if not longer depending on the resources, or lack thereof."

Amata looked a little shocked. Spending so much time with her father had given her a good grasp on logistics. "But that means that we won't have enough water for the next two months" she concluded.

"That's right. Stanley thinks he can get another two working by next week but even with that we will be only meeting seventy percent of the water needs. So for the foreseeable future there is no heating, no bathing or showers and the water is handed out by the security team. Your father really has cracked down. I need to tell him you are okay, you stay here and I'll go up to him. I'm sure he has everything sorted out." James assured and promptly walked out of the room.

Amata looked over at Arthur who was still dead to the world. She gripped his hand softly and wanted more than anything for him to be awake, but she daren't wake him.

* * *

James proceeded down the Overseers office, remarking on the quick clean-up operation underway. Some new pipes had even been installed, the overseer couldn't be criticized on his efficient management. James, Jonas and Arthur had been turned into somewhat of a celebrity trio for their actions and James received many good wishes and compliments on his way down, despite the best efforts of the overseer who would have liked to have kept them in the twilight.. He still didn't know what happened down on the reactor level with Arthur and Amata, but whatever it was the damages they suffered showed it was chaotic. James rounded up the stairs to the Overseer's office. As usual he was planted behind his computer, typing away.

"Alphonse. Your daughter is awake" James said plainly, expecting a blank response.

The overseer however sat back in his chair giving James an approving look.

"I must say James, your actions these past few days have been exemplary. I personally thank you for your efforts and as a father I thank you for looking after my daughter. It must be a auspicious moment for your usual tenth rate standards" He said, attempting to drop his monotone voice.

"Not at all. It was more Arthur than me anyway. Look Alphonse, you should give her a day or two to recover. She needs her rest" James advised. The overseer nodded with approval.

"The water systems are coming back online ahead of schedule. However we still cannot meet the demand and Stanley simply cannot work fast enough given his team. James, because of the extraordinary circumstances I am willing to give you one, and only one, filtration unit. Number 8 to be exact. Stanley informs me he doesn't have the required parts to get it working again, though it is still structurally sound. I think it is time to invest in… alternative measures to ensure our protection. I will give you twenty water chips and no more. I hope you realise the gravity of this opportunity. Do not let me down James."

James nodded slightly apprehensively. Perhaps it was the successful recovery of his daughter that had softened him or he had been humbled somewhat by the incident. Either way James was not about to jeopardise his fist chance to start the experiments proper by questioning the Overseers changed stance.

"Very well Alphonse, good day" he said as he spun about and jovially ran out of the room to discuss the news with Jonas.

* * *

Arthur awoke from his sleep with an uncomfortable neck. He was stiff all over and his hand throbbed from his cut. But his other hand was in Amata's. She was asleep, though the half-drunk glass of water next to her bed showed that she had been up recently. Arthur tried to avoid waking Amata up as he slid out of his chair as silently as possible but his hand dropped hers by accident, jolting her awake.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to wake you" he said apologetically.

She looked at him and smiled. "It's okay, I wanted to see you anyway" she smiled back. "Have you been eating?" she question, frowning at his obvious lack of self-care.

"No, not as of today. I find meals off putting for those with much work. More to throw up as it were" he joked but Amata kept a stern face.

"Arthur, seriously, you look awful. When was the last time you slept?"

"Just then" he retorted.

"No, I don't mean like that. I mean the last time you were in a bed".

Arthur paused. "When you were there with me" He said somewhat awkwardly.

Amata was surprised at this, it had been four days they had done that. "Really? It shows. You need rest."

"No, I don't." Arthur insisted. "I need to know that you are okay and I'm not leaving you while you are in such a state. And no, you will not succeed in convincing me otherwise".He stated argumentatively. Amata knew he would not move from his position, after all he held the moral high ground, she couldn't ask him to walk away from his morals. Then Amata remembered what Arthurs father had said to her.

"What if we were to sleep like that again?" she probed curiously. Arthur wouldn't admit it but he would have liked that arrangement.

"I can't, what if I touch your leg or something by accident?"

"Well if you don't I'm going to go back to my quarters and stay there without you and I'll have my father set me some work there, for the good of the vault" she positioned.

Arthur said nothing, electing to glower at her instead. Arthur knew that if she did go back to her quarters her father would give her some task to do and she wouldn't be able to fully recuperate.

"Fine you can sleep in my room. So I can look after you. Your father is still working so he cant. I might as well". It was a weak excuse but an effective one.

"Its settled then" She smiled. She sat upright and began to move off the bed. Arthur moved alongside her to help lift her to her feet. Together they shuffled down to Arthur's quarters.

The remarkably efficient cleaning operation had everyone in the vault on overtime. The rooms were filled with people removing parts of the wall to access some of the more intimate damage. Luckily Arthur's room had escaped the worst of the damage, and only a leaky radiator which was by his bed was a problem, which was quickjly fixed by himself.

Once there Arthur sat Amata down on her bed and sat next to her. Arthur looked into her Hazel eyes as she looked into his. They sat there for a moment unaware of the time passing them by. Eventually Amata shuffled a bit closer to him, their eyes still engaged in their counterparts. There hearts sped up as there movements slowed. Each caught in the others captivating gaze. Arthur didn't know what to do. Should he kiss her? Leave and go to work again? Offer her a drink? He really didn't have a clue, conversely Amata equally hit a wall. Eventually Amata leaned in close to Arthur, eyes not breaking contact for a second. She placed her hands on the back of Arthurs neck and leaned closer. She continued to gaze into the blue abyss of his eyes. She was so close she could feel his breath on her face and likewise he could feel hers on his. Her advance stopped millimetres from his lips. Arthur moved his hands onto hers as he closed the final gap. Their lips touched softly for the first time. They both closed their eyes as they continued their kiss.  
They finally withdrew from each other after a short time. They sat there, unsure of what to do or say. Amata's head was pounding. There was a rush of relief at the fact she had finally kissed the one she fancied for years, fear at the quality of kiss as it was her first as well as his and a great amount of uncertainty which surrounded her now.

"Thank you" Amata said softly, resting her forehead against his and closing her eyes. He sat there, not saying a word for he himself was immobilised by the circumstances he found himself in.  
"For everything. For saving me. For being there for me. For caring for me" Arthur by this time also had closed his eyes.

"Amata… Amata I… I … I don't really know how to express this…" He choked on his words.

His voice box dammed up and sat there for a moment thinking about his next words.

"But for a long time. As long I can care to remember I have… had, err, feelings for you."

He paused briefly, regretting that he had admitted his only secret he withheld from her.

"One might say that I… I love you Amata. And I've felt this way for a long time. But I have to say it now. Because… because I do. I love you Amata."Arthur admitted quietly.  
He didn't dare open his eyes for fear of rejection instead electing to hold his eyes tight shut, not moving a muscle, wishing he didn't exist in all his awkwardness. But if he did open his eyes he would have seen Amata with tears in hers.

"I love you too" she sniffled giving him another kiss.

* * *

1 year later.

* * *

Amata turned over in her bed, trying to escape the humid heat which plagued the vault ever since the incident that claimed three lives.  
The pipes over her head groaned rancorously, as ever. She sat up, using her hands to steady herself, she couldn't bear the heat any longer. She looked down at her Pipboy. 6:48 Am. She sighed for nothing but another twelve hour shift was going to dominate another one of her days. She hadn't any time for anything but work lately, her father was dominating her life, he would have her running menial tasks, anything to keep her occupied. Amata was beginning to suspect she knew of her and Arthur's clandestine relationship, and the increased workload was his attempt at ending it. To all intents and purposes it was successful, she hadn't actually seen Arthur for the past week, an unwelcome change from their frequent days together. Her father's dogmatic approach to such problems was why she saw Arthur becoming more and more insubordinate to the Overseer. Arthur wasn't making necessarily bad or wrong choices, quite the opposite in fact, but the Overseers way of trying to rein control over Arthur had lead him to ignore almost totally the authority the Overseer tried to exert.

"I'll be damned if he thinks he owns me, by god. Those worthy of respect do not demand it" Arthur often said.

Amata saw where Arthur was coming from, but she had no stomach for ignoring her father. She instead tried to find resolution through the medium of negotiation, though negotiating with such a person leaves her in somewhat of a hard disposition. Her loyalty to her father was the only thing that kept her from seeing the Overseer as a monster. She lifted herself off the bed and walked over to her dresser. She pulled out her vault suit, which had been lovingly washed by butch after he took up the secondary job of a Laundrette as hairdressing was not nearly as lucrative as he had once thought. She undressed from her night ware and slid into her underclothes before putting on her suit, she regretted not having a shower before going to work, but running water was a scarcity in the vault, and her father would not tolerate such use of water unproductively. She sat at her mirror as she tied back her medium length brown her into her usual bun, leaving a few strands free, as not to look too official, despite the scorn of her father.  
The Overseer had scheduled her an early start today so as soon as she was dressed and ready she left for work, skipping breakfast entirely. She was slightly early and decided it was a good idea to walk to her father's quarters and speak to him about the weeks manifest but as she approached his room she could hear screaming. She stopped dead in her tracks, listening intently, trying to identify who the cries were coming from, a male definitely. She slowly approached the Overseers room, pressing her back to the wall to avoid detection and sliding along the wall, placing feet carefully.

"Jonas, all you have to do to end this is just tell me where he went. I will call Officer Mack back and then we can solve this problem with a little civility."

Amata recoiled from horror. Her father was torturing Jonas. She froze, half out of fear for herself, half out of curiosity. She daren't walk in.

"I…I don't know anything Alphonse!" Jonas whimpered.

Amata approached the window to her father's room, still hiding form sight. The Overseer sighed.

"Jonas even when I show you such compassion you still deftly want to defend such an insubordinate traitor who would endanger the vault? I will give you one last chance to rescind your misplaced allegiance to him, or I will have officer Mack held unaccountable for his actions. I can do nothing to stop him, in my advanced age." He threatened maniacally.

"I told you! I don't know anything!" Jonas shouted.

By now Amata was at the glass pane, crouched low and looking through at an angle to blur her image. Amata heard her father sigh and watch him motion with his hand towards Officer Mack. Amata could hear the screams of Jonas as Officer Mack battered him with the baton. The oversized man swung with the weight of a sledgehammer, striking Jonas on the back of the head. Amata couldn't bear to watch and hid herself behind a wall. After a minute the cries of Jonas stopped and she heard her father shouting at officer Mack.

"Now look at what you have done! You idiot, he was our only lead. I will have to find an alternative source. Arthur will know, send your team after him. Now." The overseer ordered aggressively. "Once you have him you can find me in the security room, and for the love of god don't kill him this time" he said.

Amata panicked at the sound of footsteps approaching her. She ran behind a pillar to hide herself from her father and the Officer. She heard the footsteps a few feet away from her and shuddered, trying desperately to hold her breath.  
Her father was a murderer and she could think of nothing else. Everything she knew was bad about her father she reasoned that he wasn't a criminal, but now, there was no rebuff in her mind other than the loyalty of a daughter, desperately trying to find some reason to defend her father. The footsteps faded and Amata finally allowed herself to breathe. She had to stop the officers reaching Arthur before he did, she had to warn him of what was going on. She didn't know what was happening herself but on an adrenaline rush she decided to access the vault systems to give her and Arthur an advantage. She ran from behind the pillar into her father's room looking for something to slow the officers down.  
She ran to the override console and rapidly set about closing and sealing all doors on the upper level. She was hoping that this would slow them down, like rats in a maze they would lose their way. She knew that it wouldn't hold them for long, but perhaps long enough for her to get Arthur up and out of bed. A plan would have to be made up along the way. She then hurried over to her father's office and opened his secure safe. Inside she found a 10mm pistol, a few rounds and a small rucksack. She shoved the pistol and ammo into the bag, placed the bag over her shoulder and ran from the room. Because of her actions she couldn't get through the tunnels anymore because of the locked doors, but she had planned for this. Amata found a service shaft which had been opened to allow Stanley access to the damaged pipes on the upper level. The plan was that she would use the service tunnel to descend the floors, using the pipes as ladders to climb down the openings in the floor.  
She squeezed herself down the shaft and began sliding down to the accommodation level, grasping at the pipes . The tunnel was almost pitch black, forcing Amata to switch on the less than stealthy Pipboy light to guide her.

She could hear the hissing of discharge valves regulating themselves below her. She knew this was one way the radroaches travelled and she prayed she wouldn't run into one, she had no stomach for those grotesque abominations. Amata could smell a rank musty smell from underneath, centuries of warm, damp conditions had grown host to a myriad of insects, mosses and small mammals, and she tried ignoring what she was putting her hands on as she bit her teeth and carried on downwards. The foul stench of two hundred years of decayed air assaulted her nostrils, forcing her to breath through her mouth in an attempt to rid the smell of the putrid air from her nose, however, despite the relentless onslaught of death and age attacking her, Amata was desperately trying to figure out what had happened.

She knew that Jonas was dead and that James must have escaped from the vault, but she didn't know if Arthur knew about his father's escape or if Arthur was involved. She didn't think he had, guessing from what the overseer had said. She felt a desperate feeling growing inside her. She loved her father, but his actions were not that of a good man, or a leader of men. Stumbling down the piping, grabbing pipe to pipe in a desperate bid to outpace her opponants meant that she sacrificed caution for haste.  
She grasped one with her hands only to have her reflexes wrench it away from the extreme heat. The pipe must be carrying the heating systems water, as it was leading from the direction of the reactor. She looked around, trying to find another pipe, but to no avail. It was the only pipe in the tunnel for five metres. Amata knew she had no choice but to grab onto the pipe, despite the pain it would cause, she wouldn't be able to get to Arthur before the Officers otherwise.

She pulled a small handkerchief out of her pocket, and wrapped it around her hands and gripped the pipe as carefully as she could, trying to avoid skin contact with the hot pipe. She then brought her legs around the pipe and began to slide down. She nearly cried out with pain when her jumpsuit slid up her leg, exposing a few inches of her calf to the searing heat, but the pain was forced to the back of her mind as she bit down harder, trying to escape the pain by moving her legs, which did nothing but hasten her decent.

She could feel the cloth around her hands heat up as she slid the final few metres as well as the growing heat through her jumpsuit. The small service tunnel was visble, the one that led directly into the accommodation level. She manoeuvred herself to place her back to the wall and push off with her legs against the pipe, jamming herself against the wall. From this position she could free her hands and lift herself into the tunnel. She was positioned slightly above the tunnel, using her boots against the hot pipe she 'walked' a few feet along the wall and gripped the metal frame which covered the door. She then released her feet from the pipe and held onto the frame as she fell slightly. The frame itself was quite sharp and as Amata swung into the door it sliced into her finger tips, making her cry out in pain. She pulled herself with great effort into the tunnel and examined her fingers.

The metal had cut deep into the three major fingers in her hands, but not her little fingers or thumbs, but the bleeding was profuse. She could do nothing but put her hands under her arms and squeeze to stem the flow of blood. Pausing for a moment, Amata stopped a moment, filling with anger over Jonas' death and then she was assaulted by the fear of the same fate or Arthur. She swallowed hard and proceeded down to Arthur's room, running as fast as she could as blood dripping from her hands. As she rounded the corner to Arthur's room, it was clear she was too late. Two security officer's blocker her way into the room, with one more inside talking to Arthur. Amata had no idea how to get past them, she couldn't fight all three off them at once.

She stood behind the corner out of site while she thought up a plan. She decided to use her influence as the Overseers daughter to remove the guards, Amata knew it would work on the two outside, but she didn't know who the third guard was. Confidently she strode up to the two guards outside with as much purpose as she could muster. Amata looked at the two guards through their face masks. It was Officer Thomas and Officer Johnson.

"My father wants you in the reactor level. There's a problem with the coolant again and he wants you to monitor it while this goes on." She said as coolly as possible.

The two guards looked sceptically at each other. They weren't questioning the orders, rather than being somewhat insulted by being ordered around by what they perceived as an immature school girl.

"Today!" Amata ordered.

"This is bullshit. I'm not having this pampered princess tell me what to do. I'm going to have a word with Hannon" Officer Johnson said indignantly as he walked off to the reactor level with Officer Thomas.

Amata was relieved to no end that her plan had worked. If her father knew that she was disobeying him there would be major repercussions for her. She knew she was putting herself in danger, but she had to in order to help Arthur.

Inside Arthurs Quarters Officer Mack and Arthur were having a war of words. "Kid, I don't care if you ain't agreeing with me, you're coming with me!" he shouted aggressively.

"Not bloody likely!" Arthur said raising his voice. "I'll be damned if I'm about to be ordered around by the overseers pawn. If he wants me, he can come here instead of sending someone who is bereft of any manner of intelligence" he stated.

"Don't use your fancy words around me, kid. I don't know what you mean but I sure as hell know you just insulted me".

"Under these circumstances I think it apt to stay here until I am told about what has happened and how I am involved by the overseer personally. I don't see how my actions have done anything to cause offense or harm to this community and I won't allow the overseer to exert the dogmatic prerogative of oppression against me to coerce me into action which will no doubt serve me ill and incriminate me to no end" Arthur argued with all the brevity of an orator.

"You just did it again!" Officer Mack said upholstering his pistol.

Amata was crouched behind the door frame watching the episode unravel. She saw how it was going awry and despite her ethical arguments, dug out the gun from her bag. She loaded a single round in the chamber and cocked the gun, placing only one round in because she had no intention of using it expect to express the fact that a pistol had entered the argument. She still didn't enter the room but she knew she had to do something. It would be only a few moments before the rest of the security team arrived and dragged Arthur away. Inside the room the war of words continued.

"Kid, you're making this harder than it has to be, I'll tell you once more and if you don't get of this room I'm going to shoot you."

"I find it amusing that you think I will leave this room by empty threats. Even more incredible is the thought you actually know how to fire the gun" he stated blankly, frowning at the Officer as he often did when he was either in deep thought or angry.

The officer raised the pistol to Arthurs face. There was three metres of open ground between them, too long a distance for Arthur to attempt to tackle the officer. Arthur stared the man down, he stood there, unflinching, staring into the man's eyes, trying to force him to back off. Suddenly Arthur's eyes darted to the gun.

"I knew you didn't know how to use a pistol" he said mocking the officer as Mack dumbly looked down at his pistol, deeply confused. "The safety is on" Arthur said blankly.

The officer lowered his pistol to find the safety, in which time Arthur lunged for the pistol, trying to knock it out of the Officers hands. From out in the hallway Amata witnessed Arthur tackle the officer to the ground, trying desperately to wrench the gun from his hands. Arthur's efforts were in vain as the padded officer would take no damage from the punches he threw, and the officer had clearly invested more time into the gym than books. Amata didn't intervene as she knew that she could do little to help, and instead attempted to retrieve the Officers radio which had slid away from him in the ongoing battle. In one swift move the officer punched Arthur in the face, incapacitating him for a brief moment, allowing the officer to pin Arthur to the ground. He then drew his pistol to Arthurs face.

"It was never on safety" He said spitting savagely at Arthurs face. "I'm going to end you" he spat, punctuating his point by cocking the pistol's hammer and forcing the muzzle into Arthurs face.

Arthur could do nothing but stare invidiously into the Officers eyes as the muzzle bore down into his forehead. There was a single deafening gunshot and Arthur's ears rang with the percussion.

A fine mist descended on Arthurs face as the large Officer collapsed on him, blood leaking from a wound in his head. In the doorway stood a mortified Amata, gun level with the body and barrel smoking. Arthur could see through his dazed eyes her hands dripping with blood and the smoking pistol in her hand. She dropped the pistol and stood perfectly still, having a distraught frowning look on her face as tears welled up in her eyes.

Arthur struggled quickly up to his feet, trying to make his way over to her. Arthur could see she didn't know how to react, and he himself couldn't believe that she had just killed his assailant. He walked over to her as slowly as he could, trying to avoid any sudden movements that could scare her. She just stood there, hands still outstretched from holding the pistol; the only change was the heavy flow of tears silently rolling down her cheeks. Arthur held out his arms slowly, holding her by the arch of her back as he pulled her close, looking sympathetically through a blood covered face.

Her eyes looked to Arthur's, screaming of the guilt of the crime she had just committed. She grabbed Arthur into an embrace, as he pulled her in close and tight, still spinning from the shock of what had just happened.

He held her for a few moments, before she pulled herself from the hug. He looked at her overwhelmed face, tears forming in her eyes once more.

"You've got to get out of here Arthur. You've got to go!" she said being overpowered by a sense of urgency. "I'm so sorry Arthur. I really am" she said as tears rolled down her eyes.

Arthur pulled her into a hug, holding her head into his shoulder. "It's alright, it's alright" he said soothingly, hiding his bewildered feelings and his own recognition that what had happened clear was not. "It's okay". "It's okay, its okay. I'm here, I'm okay. It's all going to be okay".

She grabbed him tighter "It won't. Nothing will ever be the same" she whispered, sobbing loudly onto his blood stained suit.


	4. Stockholm Syndrome

Semper Eadem

Arthur stood still for a few moments more, still holding onto Amata. The sound had returned to his ears and his mind had got a grip on what was happening but there was so much he didn't know; few minutes before he was asleep in his bed, dreaming a forgotten dream when three armed guards arrived at his front door to 'escort' him to the overseer for further questioning. He had tried resolving the situation as best he could but couldn't diffuse the anger that Officer Mack held against him, for no apparent reason, it would seem. Now he was covered in blood, the fighting between him and Mack had left him on the receiving end of two horrific punches, both to his supraorbital ridges, but nothing more than pain and swelling thankfully. The blood however consisted mainly of the Type B positive that had once belonged to the former second in command of vault security. The blood was drying and clotting on his face and hair and there was a large amount of blood that had spilt onto his suit from the hole Amata gifted to Officer Mack.  
She however was largely dry, save for her eyes. She had buried her face into Arthurs shoulder and held him tightly for a minute. Arthur did what he could to soothe the distraught Amata, but he knew it was of little condolence. The room was a state; Mack had made a show of his force by throwing Arthur's dresser half way across the room which shattered when it contacted the floor. Blood was still flowing, albeit to a much lesser degree, from the hole in Mack's head which pooled like a scarlet sea around his body and the boots of Arthur and Amata. Arthur was still confused about the situation, not knowing what was going on other than his father was involved in some situation that meant that he himself was responsible. He was obliged to stand and hug Amata, despite the danger of inaction.

"Amata, what is going on? Why was he here? Why did you shoot him?" He asked seriously, but trying to avoid upsetting her.

"You've got to get out of here!" she said hysterically, grabbing at her hair, clearly in deep distress. "Your fathers left the vault and my father men are looking for you!"

"What do you mean my father has left the vault? No one ever leaves" Arthur questioned, frowning at the information.

"He's left the vault! I don't know how but he's gone and my father… he's kind of gone crazy". Amata spoke hurriedly, showing all manner of wanting to leave rather than explain to Arthur what was going on. Arthur's heart sank at the news, his own father had abandoned him, and now he was going to be punished by an out of control overseer for his actions.

"Surely to god your father would have prevented this? How could my father have left… how could he?" He said angrily

Amata looked to the ground, sensing Arthur's rage, she didn't know how to react, this situation had never happened before. She knew Arthur was angry rather for want of a grasp on the situations. He never was one to be handled about, instead he often established himself as a leader, rather than leave it to someone else's incompetence.

"I don't know. But he's gone and Jonas is dead and now they're looking for you" She said sadly. Arthur took a step back and gave a denying look towards Amata.

"Jonas… dead?"

Amata nodded solemnly.

Arthur felt his body heat up as the anger within him brewed. His eyes were wide and face pained with lips thinned. The sudden lust for revenge swirled in his head, a thousand thoughts of punishment, from the subtle to the obscene bombarded the chorus in his head, each screaming retribution, going against his moral fibre, but being met with approval in the torrent of anguish.

"My father's men think Jonas helped your dad escape, they caught him and brought him to my father's office," she looked down to the former Officer Mack and sniffled a little "he… he killed Jonas" she choked.

The room was silent as Arthur thought through the situation, while Amata wiped her eyes and composed herself. Inside Arthur was exploding with rage, but he kept it in the crucible of himself as the world of Vault 101 compressed into his mind. He looked at Amata's fingers and saw the blood staining her hands.

"Are you alright?" he said, losing the angry tone in his voice.

Amata looked down to her fingers, seeing all the six cuts on her fingers.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just sorry you had to find out like this. I know Jonas was your friend" she sniffled again. She looked up from her hands and right into Arthur's eyes.  
"But we've got to go now. My father's men will be back any minute." She said hastily.

Arthur thought over his options for a minute; there weren't really any options other than escaping and going after his father, the dead body put paid to any chance of a peaceful resolution, even though Amata had killed him, Arthur undoubtedly would be held accountable.

"There's no alternative; I have to leave the vault. I know I am not responsible for this, but nonetheless I will be punished as such, that is to say, I doubt your father will care very much to differentiate between my father and myself." He said grimly.

Amata knew there was no other way even though she wished there was.

"I know. You have to go after your father. You'll have to escape from the vault"

Arthur looked through Amata, thinking about how he would go about it. His options were limited. He would need food, water, clothes, weapons, medical supplies. He needed more than the vault probably had. Amata stood in front of him, knowing that he was thinking deeply about something. His stare broke and took Amata by surprise slightly.

"Can you help me?" he asked. "I will need that pistol, some water and food" he stated. Amata took the bag off her back and handed it to Arthur.

"There's some ammo for the pistol in there, a few magazine thingies as well. We can get water from the tap and food from the supply room" she suggested.

Arthur nodded taking the bag in his hands and walking over to his broken dresser, pulling out a spare vault suit and folding it tightly into his bag. Amata went into the kitchen and hurriedly started bottling water into small plastic, jar like bottles. Arthur walked out with his baseball bat. Amata looked at the bat, knowing he was going to use it instead of the pistol, which Arthur noticed her looking to.

"I would rather beat someone unconscious than shoot them. I have no intention of doing the devils work." he said in a matter of fact tone.

It was a poor choice of words as Amata remembered the dead Officer Mack sprawled across Arthur's bedroom floor. Arthur took note of the suddenly saddened face of Amata and tried to gain lost ground

"Amata" he started softly "what you did you needed to do. What is done is done and it saved me, so yet again I am indebted to you. His death is tragic, certainly, but he is not a man to whom we can hold sympathy for. You know he is… was… a brutal man and without you I would be dead by now. It's a grave affair and that requires grave decisions" he orated as he gripped her shoulders softly.

Amata nodded at him, her eyes showing him how bad she really felt. The once beautiful hazel eyes had become a morass of reddened sclera, smudged makeup and heavy tears.

Arthur tried to force the conversation somewhere else other than the upsetting and disturbing circumstances that they found themselves in.

"We need food, come with me, if you please" he said as he walked out of his room with Amata following closely. He turned left out of his room and stood at the supply room door.

"Is there a way into this? It would be invaluable if we could get access to the food." He said looking at the door.

"There's a way" Amata said as she crouched by the console. Her hands buried into her hair searching for a hair pin carefully, endeavouring to avoid the slit fingers that had by now crudely clotted closed. She pulled the bobby pin out and bent it in the middle and then forced it into the lock in the console.  
The door made a hissing sound as it slid open. Inside the room there were shelves upon shelved of food, stacked ten deep by at least ten metres long. Amata stood up, pressing the pin into Arthur hand.

"That's how I get in to my father office" she said as she pushed his hand closed.

Arthur walked into the room and began placing the boxes into the bag. The bag itself wasn't much bigger than two foot by one in a rectangle shaped leather wasn't a great amount of space but he managed to force several of the boxes in along with the water. In all he had about four days food with him.

"That's not a lot I can take with me. I will be short of food, no doubt. Do you think there will be settlements on the outside?" Arthur Questioned, showing an air of apprehensiveness as the reality of the precariousness of his situation hit him.

"I… I don't know. It's been a long time since the bombs fell. Maybe some other vaults opened up or some other survivors were involved. I don't know. I think so."

Arthur said nothing as he walked from the room and looked at his Pipboy, creating an itinerary of his backpack.

"Christ, I nearly forgot, there is a first aid kit in my room, on the wall. Would you mind getting it?" he asked.

Amata nodded as she ran into the room. The kit was on the wall in a small box which was marked by a faded green cross and when she opened it the contents of the box spilled onto the floor. The box had been filled with several years' worth of medical equipment, far greater than any first aid kit would require. The box was filled with Stimpacks, around ten in total with dozens of bandages and a few boxes of plasters with antiseptic wipes. There was even two syringes of MedX, something which was prohibited for private ownership, along with that there were numerous metal instruments including scalpels and an array of tweezers. She knelt down and gathered the supplies from the floor and into her arms and walked out into the room, suspiciously eying Arthur.

"Why do you have so many medical supplies? You could treat half the vault with this stuff"

Arthur who had been in his world of compacted thought looked up and at the supplies.

"Well you see I always endeavour never to be cut short. For you see life is like guessing what is in the other room and more times than not it is butch with a baseball and intention to damage some part of my anatomy, and so I must always be prepare, on a more…. Macro scale, if you will. And I intend to be prepared for any such encounter. One can never prepare too much." He stated as he opened the front pocket of his bag and carefully placed each item in.

"There's a bottle of Vodka under the sink. Would you mind?"

Amata was shocked by this possession; Arthur had always made a point of never drinking alcohol. Why would he have a whole bottle of Vodka? She stood there giving him a disapproving look. She herself refused to drink, after witnessing the rapid decline of Butch's Mother to the abhorrent vices of alcohol.

Arthur noticed the look and felt compelled to argue his side.

"For disinfectant, the alcohol can be used to kill of microbes and such, to an extent. Nothing is fool proof and to take chances is to act unnecessarily in such circumstances" he said defensively.

Amata reach into the cupboard under the sink and pulled out the unopened bottle, looking at the date of distillation.

"How long have you had this?"

"Approximately two years"

"And you've kept it all this time… for an Emergency? You've never been tempted to drink it?"

"Temptation is for the weak. Resolve to be indifferent to such matters and you will be as resolute in your actions as successful" Arthur replied. "Now if we are quite done interrogating me Inquisitor, we have more pressing matters to attend to" he said, motioning to the door.

They both walked to the door and looked down the corridor to which would ultimately lead their two lives to break apart.

As they left the room Arthur opened his bag back up and took Amata's hands carefully in his. He doused them in the vodka, forcing Amata to squint at the pain. He then placed a plaster around each of her fingers, taking extreme care not to hurt her. His movements were soft and affectionate. He paused for a moment, staring into the abyss.

"You have to go without me." He said silently.  
"If they see you with me you'll be incriminated along with me. Make your way to the top and try and stall your father, hopefully the distraction will be sufficient to let me leave…" he said forlornly. "This might be the last time I see you"

Amata looked to him as he slowly lifted his head. She didn't move and her breathing became shallow, almost ceasing. She was about to lose the one thing in the vault which she cared about most. Time slowed as the two stood there silently, staring at each other with their expressions so concisely showing their pain, no words were needed to be said, for looks convey more than words.

"I will try to meet you upstairs" she said with tears forming in her eyes once more. Arthur looked to her with a grievous look on his face.

"As long as you are safe that is all that matters" he said softly. Amata pulled him into a hug, which he sorrowfully returned; holding her in his arms as such buried her face into his neck and let out a sob.

"I hope you do not think ill of me for my apparent lack of affection" Arthur finally admitted. "For I hold you most dear and these circumstances we find ourselves thrust into will do nothing to lessen my opinion of you. When all is said and done I will return to you, depend upon it. A life out there is none at all without you."

Amata pulled herself from the embrace and kissed Arthur on the lips.

"I will wait for you by the door. I'll try and stall my father. Just please be quick and avoid anyone, I don't want my father catching you"

"I will be. Now, it's a good idea for you to set off before me. Go to your father and do whatever is necessary, just be careful." He paused for a moment. "I love you" he said smiling wearily at her.

"I love you too" Amata said as she wiped away her tears and set off down the corridor, making her way to Vaults jail in an attempt to find her father before he started a search for Officer Mack.

Arthur watched her as she ran off and even when he had turned the corner he stood there, wanting everything to be different. He resultantly turned around and picked up his bat from the floor. He grasped it in two hands and swung it in a test trial.  
He noticed the body of Officer Mack on the floor, face down in his own blood. Arthur walked over to the corpse and rolled it over into the supine position and cleared the blood from his face with a bed sheet. The man's eyes were still wide open, frozen in a look of shock. Arthur knelt down and placed his fingers over his eyelids and with a slow movement downwards he closed them; a mark of respect for a man who had been intent on killing him not 10 minutes before.

He rose from kneeling and grasped his bag on the floor as he walked to the door. There were countless things in his room he wished he could take, such as the picture of him and his father on his tenth birthday, a sentimental object that had no use other than a connection with the past, but Arthur knew the second he stood through that door, all his life up to this point had been irrelevant. No longer would he be in a place where words could win confrontation and personal advances were made through the exchange between others. He knew the only exchange he could expect, if any, was gunfire. The bat was useless outside and the pistol was impractical inside, the gunfire would only serve to expose his position to the guards. Nonetheless he had to make do with what he had. He walked from the room, bat in hand, pausing for a moment for a solemn mental farewell.  
He breathed silently, finding himself at a loss, he forced himself but no limb would move, he couldn't just walk away, not like this. Sentiment, he found, was a powerful force. So many memories he had in this room. His first kiss. His admission to Amata. Three years of his life he had lived and slept there. Every day after work he would study on a now overturned desk. He would sit on his bed and message Amata despite The Overseer explicitly banning such activity. Leaving everything he knew behind was so much more intense than words can describe. The feeling of belonging, of ownership, the responsibility of living by himself, and he was just going to walk away from it. He had to.

He wrenched his mind of the negative and onto the objective. The vault was going to kill him if he didn't act, and inaction was something Arthur was a stranger to.

"Do the business of the day in the day" he thought as he began walking away from his room.

* * *

Arthur had been keeping his movements quiet as he ran from corridor to corridor, attempting to make his way to the Atrium. He had no encountered any Officers as of yet, though he was convinced he would when the alarm was sounded not twenty seconds after he walked from his room. The whole vault now must have known about the escape. A population of around one hundred and fifty were now all potential threats to Arthur, and he took pains to avoid them.  
He ran in no particular direction, trying to avoid the more populated areas of the vault.  
He was roughly half way there when from around the corner he heard the sound of metal bashing against concrete and the sounds of something hard being beaten through. Arthur leant around the corner carefully, exposing just his cheek and eye. He saw an officer standing, fighting off seven rad roaches. The mutant insects grabbed at the Officers legs, tearing the cloth away. The Officer would bat them away but only to have a mandible attack him from round the side. The Officer was visibly frustrated, but, oddly, not panicked by the rabid attack he was fending off.

Arthur didn't know what to do, his most recent encounter with an officer had left him nearly dead and approaching another was not the foremost idea Arthur had. The officer swung round at a Radroach and knocked its head flying in the direction of Arthur. Arthur followed the insect's remains with his head as it rolled past his corner. Incidentally the officer had done that also and as Arthur looked back to the raging battle he saw the Officer stare straight back at him, disregarding the roaches.

"You! You little shit!" the Officer growled as he swathed his way through the roaches with a renewed fury, intent on striking at Arthur.

Arthur backed away from the corner, holding the bat length ways to stop any swings. The ravenous man closed the gap within seconds, a speed which was frightening to witness. The Officer swung savagely at the final radroach and sent its carcass flying across the floor in a display of uncontrolled anger. Arthur by now had identified the officer as Officer Kendall, an aggressive man by nature with a short tempered disposition; Arthur knew there was little chance at negotiation. Despite his lack of ability with a baseball bat, he would have to fight the man.

The Officer walked menacingly towards Arthur, swaying his baton lightly by his leg, adding to the intimidation. There was a brief roar of exertion as Kendal raised his arm above his head and swung at Arthur with brutal ferocity. Arthur instinctively raised his bat to protect himself, but it was too little avail as the blow glanced off the wood and slid down the length of the bat, striking Arthur in the chin, forcing him to stumble several feet backwards to escape from the inevitable attack Kendal was charging up.

Arthur rubbed his chin with his shoulder as Kendal stood a mere two metres away, grinning madly at his success. Arthur raised his bat again; making sure it wasn't angled in such a way that a ricochet swing wouldn't hit him again.

Another roar came from the officer as he ran charged forwards swinging madly at Arthur. The officer's over-zealous use of energy allowed Arthur a slight advantage. Using the officer's momentum against him, Arthur struck at his knees, forcing the officer onto the floor. Kendall attempted to stand again, as he energetically lifted himself onto all fours but Arthur sensing this was his only good opportunity drove home with the bat between the unguarded neck and shoulder plates.  
He sung again and again at the opening, each time he felt the bat slide a little off one of the vertebrae. He continued pounding this area for a few moments more, making absolutely sure there was no movement before allowing himself to stop caving the poor man's neck in. If he wasn't dead then he wouldn't be walking ever again.

Abhorred by the sight of the mangled mess of the man's neck, Arthur recoiled at the grim sight. The Officer's neck was a mangled mess of shattered bone, visibly protruding through broken and lacerated skin. Arthur felt uneasy at the look of the man. He had actually killed someone in cold blood. He tried to internally reason with himself, attempting to condone his actions by justifying that his actions were to preserve his life, and that meant the death of him. But any attempt at justification did little to dampen the sickening feeling that felt like it was dragging his soul away. He knew that the officer's death was unnecessary, but what could he have done? The man wouldn't have stopped to have a philosophical chat with Arthur. However he felt ashamed of himself, as if his actions had corrupted all that he had ever held dear. There was no moral integrity in killing, he found. Arthur's breathing became laboured and erratic as he had somewhat a mental lapse. Falling into a brief moment of utter terror and despair far greater than anything he had ever experienced. He had seen dead bodies before in his line of work and was always indifferent to them, even officer Mack's sudden and gruesome demise did little to affect him, but when death was dealt by his hand, there were no words comparable.

Arthur was suddenly confronted with a sickening decision, leave the probably dead Officer to be devoured by the radroaches, allowing Arthur a quicker, hassle free escape or drag the corpse into a room, waste time for honour and have a greater chance of the security team finding him. He decided with the latter rather than the former and grabbed the officer's armour and dragged the body down the hallway. The officer's head rolled from side to side in a sickening, unnatural way as Arthur dragged him along and with each corner turned, the head would seem to almost fall from the neck.

Suddenly, there was a high pitched scream that resonated throughout the corridors. Accompanying the scream came a tearful figure running down the hallway, clad in signature leather jacket. As the figure approached Arthur could see the features of Butch, with a distraught, emotion afflicted face. Butch was running headlong on to Arthur.

Slightly curious to what butch was running from, or to but worried that the butch had harmful intentions, as the previous two out of three people he had met had, Arthur readied his bat as a precaution. He ran right up to Arthur and grabbed his shoulders in a desperate bid to gain Arthur's help. Arthur gave Butch a cautious look as Butch clung to his suit, as he gripped the bat, resisting the urge to swing at the bully.

"You gotta help me! My mom's trapped in there with the rad roaches!"

"Your mums trapped where?" Arthur asked hesitantly, still brandishing the bat.

"In my room! C'mon we have to help her!"

"Alright, lead the way" Arthur said carefully pushing the body of Kendall to the corner of the corridor in a futile bid to prevent the body from being discovered.

Fortunately the room was only a corridor away and they quickly made it to the front door. Arthur stood waiting for Butch to go first; however Butch just looked at Arthur petrified. Arthur stood there listening to the screams of Butch's mother. Frustrated by Butch's inaction and to coax into movement, Arthur motioned to the door with his head with his eyes wide open and mouth slightly agape out of sheer shock Butch wasn't leading the charge to his own mothers rescue.

"I see you aren't one to be disposed to heroics then" Arthur scorned.

"Its dark in there man! You'll have to go in there on your own" Butch said nervously, edging away from the door.

"By god, you're a coward. Scum is too pleasant a compliant for you" Arthur disparaged as he moved into the open doorway.

In the room adjoining Arthur could hear the screams of Ellen, Butch's mother. Furniture and ornaments were scattered all over the room, showing the desperate struggle Ellen had made as she scrambled to the relative safety of the bedroom. Arthur stood on photo frames accidently as he cautiously walked to the door of the opposite room, keeping a wary eye out for any straggling radroaches. He approached the console and flipped the switch to slide the door open.  
The door groaned and opened agonisingly slowly, clearly from ill maintenance and neglect. Around waist height Arthur bent over and slid under the door only to be met with the most overdramatic scene of carnage he had ever met.

On a table stood the mother of the bully who had tormented him his whole life. Around her were three small radroaches nipping her feet. Arthur was amazed about how much fuss this brave trio of insects had made.

With his BB gun, he and Amata used to go hunting radroaches twice there size when he was a mere eleven years old. Arthur duly swung the bat at each of the radroaches and smashed there exoskeletons apart. Ellen who had continued here high pitched scream throughout fell into Arthur's arms in a most dramatic fashion as Butch finally found the courage to enter his home.

"Butchy! You saved me!" Ellen cried as she rose from Arthur's arms and pushed him away. Arthur was shocked, watching the episode in amazement. Butch embraced his mother in an impassioned hug.

"Much ado about nothing" Arthur muttered vehemently.

Butch ran over to Arthur with a beaming expression on his face

"We did it! You're the best friend I've ever had!"

"Oh, it was nothing" Arthur said sarcastically but truthfully.

"Here, take this. It's not much but it means a whole bunch" Butch said as he removed his leather jacket and passed it to Arthur. Arthur reluctantly accepted the gift.

"Thank you, I'll put it to good use, I'm sure." He said with his mind drifting.

"I will accept your gift in just a moment, if you could just bear with me for one minute" Arthur said as he handed back the jacket and walked from the room in a disenchanted fashion. Butch turned from his mother and gave her a smile of relief. She, however, pulled out a bottle of Vodka from the counter, one of the few things that was not smashed in the flurry of panic not five minutes before. Disregarded the shot glasses on the floor, she instead plugged her lips around the bottle and chugged away thirstily.  
Butch looked at his mother disapprovingly as she drained half of the burning liquid in one take, but he daren't say anything, he had been on the receiving end of her alcohol induced rage before.

She sighed with heavy relief as the room temperature alcohol hit her stomach and sat heavily, waiting to be absorbed into her blood stream, then she could finally be calm. Butch witnessed her eyes widen as she looked through the doorway from where she was sat on the sofa. She threw the bottle through the door as she screamed yet another pained howl. Butch was unaware of what she was screaming at until Arthurs back passed the threshold of the room, hunching over, straining as he dragged something into the room. Butch himself let out a loud, high pitch scream as he clutched at a pillow at the sight of Officer Kendall's corpse being dragged into the room with the sickening head rolling announcing that the officer was dead.

Arthur placed the body onto a rug in the middle of the room, where a turned over table used to be situated. He lifted himself up and calmly walked over to butch who had jammed himself into the corner of the room, clutching his protective pillow.

Arthur noted that he was visibly shaking, as if the room were minus fifty degrees. He looked around the room for the jacket that was his pathetic prize for a pathetic state of affairs. He spotted the jacket on the floor, just in front of Butch and he knelt down and picked up the garment. Butch whimpered as Arthur knelt down to the murdered body .Once again Butch let out a yelp at the sight of Arthur to closing the man's dead eyes. Arthur disregarded the dramatic duo and with the jacket in hand, he respectfully and carefully placed the jacket over the Officers face.

"Don't worry, he is dead. I thought he might be able to convalesce from this but he is dead" he said grimly, again frowning at the body.  
"Other Officers, undoubtedly, will come here. When they do just point him out and they should take care of the rest. But as with all things, I leave this to your discretion; do to him with what you want. Notwithstanding my efforts for a peaceful resolution it would appear resolve is not a peaceful word to him, let it never be said the attempt to resolve the affair amicably was found lacking on my behalf." Arthur said and promptly walked from the room as Ellen yet again fainted as he passed her.

Arthur gave one last solemn look back to the paled face of his victim. Little did his heart want more than to repent for his actions, but to emotional distress, relief would have to wait.

* * *

Amata had been running from level to level for the past twenty minutes. She was trying to make her way up to the console systems that she was at before when she had shut down the doors. The route she took was through the stairs, deciding against another climb through the pipe hell hole which had caused her so much injury. The vault echoed with the screams of alarms and the Overseer's voice which urged calm. Amata found herself being repulsed by the sound of her father voice. With each word he said, a little bit of her grew against him. There were Officer Patrols everywhere and by now Amata suspected they had found the body of Officer Mack.

The panic of the vault had truly set in. The rooms of people were locked and from them, crying of children and adults alike could be heard and if truth be told, Amata, under other circumstances would have joined them in the wailing. Nothing had been so melancholy in her life but this. The world as she knew it was thrown upside down in the most brutal of fashions. The objective she had set herself was to try and find out why James had left. She had made her way undetected to the upper levels once more but found her progress almost stop, for fear of being seen. Any concerted attempt to run the distance would have shown herself up to the guards that frequently patrolled the atrium. Her stealthy movements were agonisingly slow but they succeeded in hiding her.

She had managed to sneak her way right back to where she had started, and now she could start ripping information from the main computer console. Every file she opened she scanned quickly for the relevant information, searching for Arthur or James' name in particular, though a large majority of the files were meaningless code. Amata had worked herself into a craze, she was frantically typing at the keyboard of the mainframe, regardless of the pain in her fingers, but like a wild animal, whenever a sound came from the halls, she would dart her head upwards, searching intensely before tentatively returning to the keyboard. She was terribly exposed as the mainframe was both alongside a corridor and only metres away from the guard room where Jonas had died not long before.

Every file opened was a minute wasted. It was remarkable how she hadn't been caught yet; at least three times Amata had to dive for cover behind a pillar to avoid another squad on patrol. By now Amata had given up on the mainframe, it was a pointless exercise, resulting in no gains for invaluable time wasted. Amata was closing down the system and trying to wipe her digital fingerprint from the code when from the corridor leading to the security room came a large bang. Amata snapped her head around in a fight or flight reaction and froze to the spot.

From the doorway of the security room a figure was thrown out onto the floor, crashing painfully against the concrete, head first. The figure tried to scramble to its feet in a desperate gamble to flee from whatever was pursuing it. The figure scrambled two metres towards Amata before another figure entered the doorway. Amata looked on in intense curiosity as she tried to work out what was happening. The figure on the floor looked up to Amata and stared her right in the eye with a pained helpless look.

With this Amata knew she couldn't stand there any longer, lest the ominous assailant would see her too. The pillar was the tried and tested cover and she quickly darted behind it, steading her breathing and listening intently.

"No no no no no!" came a cry followed by a heavy fist hitting flesh.

There was a brief groan and a lot of pained heaving. Amata could only hear movements but couldn't translate them into actions. The rapid fumbling in the background sounded like a one way struggle, and imagination had the man on the floor at the losing end of it. More pained breathing and heaving followed as another punch was thrown, followed by a crumpling sound, probably of a man hitting the floor again. The room seems to compress around Amata's ears.

"Open the doors, Floyd" came a voice.

"I don't know how. I don't work on the computers, I'm a mechanic not a technician!" came the reply.

"Then explain why most of the doors to the lower levels are locked?" came the reply.

By now Amata had realised that the assailant was Chief Officer Hannon, a brute of a man, who was always punctual and dedicated to the cause of the vault. A nice enough man when he worked for you, as he did for Amata, but not a pleasant superior. On the floor audibly whimpering and crying was Floyd Lewis, a capable vault mechanic who had distinguished himself during The Incident a year ago and was widely lauded to succeed from Stanley. He was a quiet man, a loner by his own admission. Though Arthur was an aloof character, Floyd was difficult to get along with, lacking any scene of charisma.

Another bout of beatings made Amata cringe in pity for the man. She contemplated giving herself up to protect Floyd but she needed to protect Arthur, even if it meant the pain of Floyd.

"You have three seconds before I remove your manhood" came a grunt as Hannon forced Floyd against the wall.

"I can't! I swear to god I can't! I don't know who did it but I promise you on my life… my life… that I can't open them again. I was never taught!"

Hannon threw Floyd to the floor again.

"Then learn" he said as he kicked him in the stomach. Floyd coughed violently from the impact and writhed around on the floor. Hannon pushed Floyd along the floor to the console and booted him again for good measure. A visceral abstract image of the beating burned into Amata's mind, feeling nothing but raw pity for Floyd, who, whilst not deserving of the punishment, took the beating not in silence, but in a rancorous bout of cries and screams, tearing any sense of dignity from him. With each cry came a retort of anger from the Officer, who, far from being concerned for the wellbeing, positively relished in his sickening act of brutality.

"All I am asking, and it is quite simple, is for you to disengage those locks so my men can find him. That's all. Then you can go" he same, placing his foot on Floyd again.

"Okay, okay" he choked. "I'll do my best. But I swear to god, I don't know how to or who did" he said as he hoisted his battered body from the floor, grasping at the console.

A brief moment of inaudible activity passed.

"I… I … I…." Floyd stumbled

"You are going to get on to that damn computer and tell me who the fuck is fucking about with my vault!" he said assertively.

Amata's heart began to race even faster. She hadn't completed the full shutdown and if he told Hannon she would be in as much trouble as Arthur was. There wasn't even an escape route, as desperately as she tried to look for one. The pillar that kept her hidden also kept her trapped. She couldn't run for an exit, Hannon always carried a pistol and with the possibility of Floyd giving her up, she became increasingly worried about the outcome of the next few minutes. The room shrank even more as every sound was amplified and every movement translated by her mind and traced across the hall, creating an awareness of the locations of the two men, despite not having moved from her position for fear of capture.

"I can't do it. I told you I couldn't do it. Please don't hurt me" Floyd cried.

"I asked you to do one thing. Just one little thing" Hannon shouted back "Who did this! Who shut them down!"

"I …" Floyd said, glancing over to Amata's pillar. "I don't know" he said back unconvincingly.  
"Liar!" Hannon shouted, laying into Floyd yet again. The beating was truly atrocious, Hannon kicked the man's head with his steel capped boots several times, accompanying that was a furious bout of punches to the abdomen, creating a rolled up Floyd, nose bleeding, on the floor crying for mercy.

"She's over there!" he cried, trying to end the onslaught.

Immediately Hannon froze and Amata's heart gasped as she tightened her fists, trying to stop herself panicking. She knew that whatever beating Floyd was enduring she would also receive if Hannon got hold of her. Hannon was the definition of brainwashed. Her father had indoctrinated within him a deep passion for the Vault, at the compromised expense of compassion for other people.

"By the pillar, she did it. Speak to her, she locked the doors" he said sobbing.

Without a sound the officer approached the pillar. Amata couldn't do anything. If she moved she would be given away, if she stayed she would be given away. Frantically considering her options she pushed herself against the pillar, trying to find some way of avoiding the Officer.

"Boo" came a voice from Amata's ear sending her stumbling sidewards in sheer terror. The officer had assailed her position without a sound.

She fell to the floor, and as Floyd did, she scrambled for safety, but to no avail as the Officer grabbed her by the hair, forcefully dragging her into the middle of the room. She kicked and screamed the whole way. Little is more painful but less damaging than pulling hair and Amata was receiving this lesson first hand as she tried to push herself towards the direction of tension to lessen the pain. He released her by Floyd who gave her an incredibly apologetic look,

"I take it you heard all that then" Hannon said, bearing down from above her.

Amata said nothing but fearfully looked to her attacker. Her lips were quivering with an intense dread, but a different type of horror than she had experienced when she had shot Officer Mack, but no less potent. Hannon smiled as he saw an opportunity for his aggressive diplomacy. He upholstered the gun and cocked the hammer back.

"Don't hurt her" Floyd said, attempting to be gallant.

Officer Hannon gave them both a sly, intimidating look.

"I'm not going to hurt her" he said as he drew out his pistol to Floyd's leg and squeezed the trigger.

* * *

I hope you're enjoying this. I know none of this happens in the actual game, but its always confused me as to why there were so many lose ends, missing wall segments for example. I am enjoying writing this very much but I would like your feedback on this. Its my first fan fiction and I need to test the water as it were. I would like something critical, highlighting pros and cons, so if anyone could do that for me, i would appreciate it very much. Again thankyou for reading and any comments that you may have, i would love to address them, so please feel free to either PM me or review.  
Thankyou ever so much  
Nathan


	5. Towards The Light

Semper Eadem

Reality and expectations are often two worlds apart. For example, the hope in Hannon's mind was that the 10mm bullet fired from his pistol and into Floyd's leg would cause a fountain of blood, a mess of bone, cartilage and tendons with a dramatic finale where the leg would fling its self across the room in the most dramatic of fashions, all to intimidate Amata, of course. However, the round duly sped its way down the barrel and left the muzzle of the pistol. Two loud, but distinctive, bangs shattered through the room. The first bang was the highly compressed gasses from the cartridge expanding at a phenomenal rate as they left the barrel, while the second bang, a sharper crack sound like bang was when the round passed the sound barrier. The round continued in the air for a fraction of a second, traveling four hundred metres per second, before connecting and slicing through the knee of Floyd. The round contacted the femur and caused the bone to shatter into several large pieces, causing massive internal damage. Fragments of the bullet splintered off, flying in all directions in Floyd's leg, causing the main femoral artery to be severed. From a medical perspective the immense damage would have been a sight to withdraw in horror from; however the simpler mind of Hannon was more concerned with effects, or lack thereof, and was left in great want of the desired theatrics.

Notwithstanding the rather poor display of gore, Hannon was more than content from the horrifying spectacle by Floyd's actions. The round had failed to cause the shock horror effect Hannon wanted, but it is axiomatic to say that Floyd's reaction aired on the extreme side of human pain, for which no blame can be attached to him. When the trigger was pulled he was stood straight up, watching in horror as his betrayal of Amata showed its grim consequences. Now he was on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Every movement and every muscle flex sent a level of pain which is unimaginable to those who have not witness it.  
Floyd was screaming on the floor, caught between trying to grasp his leg and the pain he caused in doing so which forced him to back off, and so went the back and forth war for comfort. There were no tears in his eyes, only a bleak expression of the utmost pain as he gasped for air, which was not returning to his lungs as he was screaming such an extent. His face went scarlet and so deep and marked was the colour that his face matched that of the blood on the floor. Every vain and artery in his body was one hundred times more pronounced in a scene so grim, even the stony faced Hannon grimaced slightly.

Amata screamed as the bullet percussed around the room, blocking her eyes and ears to the sound. What replaced the gunshot was nothing quieter, but vastly more intense. Amata saw the poor man writhing around in his own blood, crying for mercy and aid, watching the man beg on the floor for her help. He tried to grasp at her, urging for her to come forwards, to his aid. Tears rolled down Amata's eyes as she pulled herself from the floor towards him, trying to help in some small way.

Hannon watched the carnage with hidden delight. While the bullet did little to terrify Amata, Floyd's reaction was doing more damage to her than to Floyd, it would seem. With every heart wrenching scream she was torn apart. She continually struggled towards Floyd, trying to help him in any small way, but every movement towards him was met by an opposite reaction by Hannon, who dragged her away, intent on maker her suffer through his demise. What seemed like hours passed away in seconds and the face of Floyd was now milk white from blood loss, while his body writhed in pain so acute, he could feel nothing but pure agony.  
Hannon walked over to the man and grabbed him by his collar and hoisted him to his knees. A harrowing scream reverberated throughout the vault as Floyds shattered knee contacted the floor. He tried to move weight off his destroyed leg, only to have Hannon, who by now was bearing over him, push down with his hands, increasing the suffering of his victim. Hannon forced Floyd to look Amata straight in the eye by gripping his face and turning it towards her. Amata had tears of absolute remorse for Floyd, and her expression was one of complete sorrow, for she knew what Hannon was about to do.

Hannon knelt down to the wailing Floyd and whispered into his ear,

"Die with dignity."

Those words only brought about fresh tears from his eyes as an emotional pain at the realisation that his life was shortly coming to an end.

"I will ask you once, and only once. Open the doors."

Hannon gazed at Amata with eyes so devoid of sympathy that he made her father seem the most magnanimous of men.  
The room was completely silent aside from the pained sobs of Floyd which occasionally broke the deathly silence as Amata froze to nothing and Hannon stared her down, both locked in a dangerous game of brinkmanship. Amata knew that Hannon would shoot Floyd, no matter the outcome, but she had to find a way to protect the man from more pain.  
Hannon, after being woken up by alarms and summoned into an emergency meeting by the overseer was in no mood to play games with the Overseers princess. He cocked the hammer of the pistol and hovered it over Floyds shoulder.

"Please?" he asked sweetly, tilting his head slightly.

Amata still sat on the floor, avoiding any movement or facial expression, trying to buy time for anything. An opportunity which would never come, she knew well. In all honesty, she was hoping for her father to gallantly stride forth from his office and order the seething violence that brewed inside Hannon down, but after this morning, she knew that no such action, even if he were aware, would come from him.

Hannon stood there still, with his gunboat diplomacy upping the intensity each second. The suffering of Floyd was of no concern for him; he never was a man to confuse emotion with duty.

Disappointed with Amata's reaction, he pulled the trigger.

Another round span out of the barrel and straight into Floyd's scapula, shredding his back and the top of his lung. There was no cry of pain from Floyd, no grunt of exertion or screaming anguish, only a wide eyed, confused expression as he fell face first onto the concrete ground. Then came the most horrific bout of suffering the vault had ever laid witness too since the bombs first fell.  
The body of Floyd went into a full spasm, his legs and arms flailing helplessly against the floor, not really in any articulate motion, just repeatedly pushing again the floor in a frenzy of shock and pain. All the while Hannon didn't even look at the scene, more interested in Amata's reaction.

She, conversely, was in a state of pure morbid fascination as Floyds motions relentlessly attacked the floor; the way that he had no longer the energy or the will to cry out in pain, through some shock related process, but instead his body, far from his own control, fought with itself for supremacy over the indomitable. The way his limbs moved so rapidly but uncontrolled astounded her. The thought of millions of years of evolution wasted by a small piece of metal passing through a body truly astounded her, and brought back the reality of the world she so naïvely lived in.

"Please, for the love of god. Stop!" she begged finally.

"There's only one way sweetheart." came the macabre reply.

Amata lifted herself up from the ground and ran over to the console, and, as quickly as she could, the doors opened one by one. From the forty plus doors she had locked closed, one had remained open from her rushed attempt to save Arthur. It is axiomatic to state that the one door had had the consequence of two people dead, unbeknownst to her. And while she had every intention to save Arthur, the closing of the doors had forced him into the maze, as well as the Guards, a one way system of an inevitability that Arthur, somewhere, was going collide into a guard, and it was because of her. She had allowed the guards to reach him and she had failed to save him from encountering them again.  
A wave of guilt attacked her as she realised that most, if not all of the problems she had attempted to mitigate, had come true, a self-fulfilling prophesy. And now she was betraying him again, albeit to save a man from pain by pushing him to death, but no outcome was a good one, no roads lead to home, for Arthur or her, she was beginning to conclude.

She entered the final lines of code to open the doors, and with one press of the key, from within the vault, the doors duly unlocked themselves obediently, willingly endangering the one person she loved the most for a life that was going to be ended by a man so keen on death, he had made it a spectacle.

Hannon breathed in heavily and out again, punctuating his relief by closing his eyes.

"Thank you" he said as he aimed at the head of the now motionless, but alive, Floyd.

One final gunshot rang from the gun as it took away all the pain, all the suffering and all the distress Floyd was in.  
From the deafening sound came utter silence, the gravity of the situation demanded a solemn silence be observed, which Hannon briefly complied with, then broke.

"Now you, you have some questions to answer" Hannon said as he turned to her. "Come along princess, nice and easy. You'll learn quickly, the worst is yet to come"

By now the Vault had completed its rapid descent into chaos. Every peaceful moment that ever existed in the vault had ceased to be as wailing sirens and flashing lights illuminated the vault. The diner where Arthur and Amata used to go after school was no a derelict mess.

Arthur stood at the door way, briefly recounting his memories there; the counter where he had first received his Pipboy, the tables where James would take Arthur and Amata for tea when they had been well behaved or some other such achievement. Now the room was a state, the lights were off in the room, but a small beam of light entered through the doorway, marking a path to a body in the centre of the room.  
Every moment spent in the vault now seemed meaningless. What possible skills, aside from his medical ones, would have any positive effect on the outside?

On the floor in the room was an old woman, named affectionately as Grandma Taylor. Arthur had little to do with her aside from walking past her occasionally. But there was something extremely sad about her death, the way that the old were discarded as they could no longer materially benefit the vault. Arthur walked over to the corpse, avoiding the overturned tables and features. The woman, likely, had a heart attack during the intense excitement that the vault was undergoing; poignant reminder that not only he and Amata were effected or going to be affected, by this disaster of a day.

He could do nothing for the dead lady and stood up to leave the diner. As he approached the door, he heard the sounds of someone running down the hall. The distinct rattle of webbing and equipment marked out the person as an Officer.  
Arthur hid himself against the wall, far enough back to be hidden in the darkness, adjacent to do door, once again trying to avoid the confrontation that had claimed two lives.  
The footsteps slowed, and almost crept towards the door, forcing Arthur to cringe with anticipation and grip the bat tightly in foresight of the inevitable clash, once more.

"Oh my god" came a shocked gasp. "Oh no. Not you"

Arthur readied himself for the engagement as the footsteps indicated movement towards the door.  
An officer walked through the archway and approached the lady, not noticing Arthur, who by now was slowly moving backwards to hide himself better. The officer switched on a torch in the blackened room, hovering over the body with great sadness.

Arthur continued his slow retreat into the darkness, stepping blindly into a minefield of potential noises. A step backwards landed upon a plate, which, rather than breaking, slid under Arthur's foot, unstabilising Arthur as he fell to the floor in an orchestra of noise and destruction as other plates, on a nearby table, slid off too.

The officer instinctively shone his torch at Arthurs face, blinding him as his eyes slowly adjusted. In a frantic fashion, Arthur grasped for his baseball bat, which by now had slid across the floor, out of his reach. Arthur was suspended in two actions, one half of still falling over the debris, and the other half shielding himself, desperately trying to stand up.

"Whoa! Whoa son! It's just me, I just want to talk to you for a minute" came the voice which was hidden behind the blinding light.

"It's me, Gomez? Don't worry I just want to talk" The officer said.

Arthur, still shielding his eyes, stopped flailing and gasped a degree of calm from the situation, slowly pulling himself up, using a table as a support. Arthur let his guard down to the officer, for he knew that officer Gomez was the most affable of all the vault security team.

Gomez walked over to Arthur, who by now had managed to regain his posture and had retrieved his bat.

"You're lucky I found you, the others won't be so forgiving" the officer said troubled. "I don't know what you're up to and I…I don't want to know, just clear out of here and I'll pretend I never saw you." He said looking at the body

"Thank you, Officer Gomez, though you must understand, I did not cause or ask for this."

"I know son, I know. This is just real messed up"  
Arthur nodded in agreement. The officer once again looked to the body.

"It's a real shame it's come to this, I can't believe what they did to Jonas… Officer Mack was just out of control." He paused. "You didn't do anything to deserve this, go find your dad if you can." he said, indicating to the door.

"Circumstances to which I have no control" Arthur said solemnly, looking at the floor slightly.  
The officer nodded. Without words or pomp, Arthur walked from the room, both knowing they could do little for each other, but if truth were told, he was grateful he encountered Gomez, a little bit of civility in the untamed rage of the vault.

Arthur now was nearly at the Atrium level, which would place him directly under the overseer's office and one such escape route, he hoped, though he was unsure of which route Amata intended to meet him at. Nonetheless he proceeded with the intention of leaving through the direct, and probably most defended way, though he expected the resistance to be nothing more than a guard or two at most, the rest being on patrols in the lower levels which he had now evaded, it would seem.  
He rounded the top of the stairs only to be met with a scene so unlike recent circumstances that Arthur had to double take. In the foyer there were people, calmly chatting amongst themselves, discussing the most recent and scandalous events, key among them was the topic of Arthur escape, or lack thereof, with many speculating he was a terrorist and needed to be stopped. Many were more sympathetic and were content on calling James a coward instead. Stranger still was that nobody saw him. Everyone was so engaged in their speculation that of the room of twenty, not one eye balanced on Arthur. Taking advantage of this, he moved quickly, with his head downwards, looking to the floor, to the other end of the room, trying to find the exit.

He walked over to a corridor where the principle entrance to the vault was, which was guarded by a small team of about six guards, all of which looked on edge, and were holding an assortment of fire arms, a menacing site for one man, armed currently with a bat. Arthur decided against wasting his life for heroics and moved off to the overseer's office in some hope of finding a secret escape route. However, as he made his way over to the staircase, which was blocked open in some convenient way, there was a commotion behind Arthur, which prompted him to turn about.

From the private murmurings came a rebellious voice, dissatisfied by the years under ground, the youth was rallying people to his newfound cause, an opportunistic rebel finding a voice in a opportunity.

"Don't you see? We don't have to take this. We can get out of here, right now, just like the doctor." Said Tom Holden, forcing his way to the front of the crowd.

"We don't have to let anyone stop us." he asserted.

Mary stood dutifully behind him, proving the moral support for his campaign. In the room there were several murmurs of agreement as the situations stirred.  
"So come on, what are we waiting for? They can't stop us. Not all of us." he rallied.  
The crowd shifted slowly towards the door, gravitating there as the guards readied themselves with their weapons and armour. Arthur stood by the side, watching, silently wishing the rioters to succeed.

As the crowed continued to mutter with agreement with Tom's rebellious ideas, they also advanced down the hall. Each step they took brought them closer to their freedom, as they too were dissatisfied with the Overseers authoritarian figure. No longer were they to stand by while an unelected leader forced their lives in any direction he wanted. The guards, however, had no such qualms with the Overseer.  
As the crowd began picking up pace, so the guards prepared themselves more, readying themselves for the clash. There was a sudden hiatus of movement on both sides in the corridor, as the crowd came to a sudden halt. From within the morass, walked out Tom Holden as the one man delegation walked towards the guards, intent on delivering his demands, and like Moses himself, he would lead his people out into the desert of the apocalypse.

From the back of the crowd, which Arthur had joined out of sheer curiosity, knowing the attempt would be fruitless, but nonetheless he could gauge the response of the guards.

Tom approached a guard, striding forth with a high degree of self-confidence, urged on by his self-righteousness and the thirty people behind him, which was growing by the minute, astounding considering the tone of the vault was condemning what they were now rallying to do, all too keen to fight their way through, if need be.

The opening of correspondence was marked by a confident oration by Tom, attacking the guards with his liberal ideas, his naive outlook of the world outside which he had never seen and a final, tumultuous cry to the mass of people behind him to rally with him, that is to say, to cheer as loud as they could. Bereft of cockades, they were the revolutionaries.  
The security team viewed the new revolutionaries in a negative manner and the leader of the team simply walked over to the orating Tom and pushed him over.

Humiliated, he pushed himself dramatically to his feet and his sister, Mary ran over to him, offering a comforting presence to the reddening Tom. To this action the mob grew silent, as another standoff began in the vault.  
Slowly, the less reputable citizens began shouting insults to the guards, then it became objects, evolving all the time into a more and more decrepit state, to such a point as the mob started to use furniture to batter their way through the shield wall the guards had now erected in their defence. The entire scenario was becoming a weak crucible, inevitably bound to break.

Notwithstanding the more moderate of the crowds please to calm the situation, the mob in general both grew in strength as other families joined the micro-revolution, and in anger, viewing the guards more of perpetrators of their suffering, rather than an entity to the vaults protection, to which they were more akin.

The gathering was quickly becoming violent; furniture was used as weapons, bottles thrown at the guards. There was no reply from the guards, instead their reaction was to equip their shields and form a blockade across the corridor, preventing the mob from moving forward, try what they might.

Then a sudden bout of violence erupted sporadically in the mob, as they charged the officers, using anything as clubs or weapons, anything to part the wall. Rioters grabbed at the shields, trying to rip them away with their bare hands, so desperate was their attack. All the while the guards stood dutifully in the position to receive the enemy.

Tom himself was at the forefront of the fight, trying to rip the shield from a guard, only to be hit backwards in the ongoing melee. Mary was also exacting revenge for her brother's embarrassment, as she threw discarded chunks of concrete and other assorted projectiles at the wall of guards, quite out of herself on the rampage she was participating in.

Arthur stood quietly at the back of the crowd, not participating rather than watching the events unfold. He was a spectator in and amongst the carnage. He began into his world of compressed thought, analysing the prospects for both the guards and the rioters. He concluded that the position the guards were in was untenable, they would be compressed against the back wall and then be dragged apart by the crowd's superior numbers. The only advantage they held, that is to say cohesion, would be destroyed the second the wall either broke or could not hold all the rioters back. Similarly Arthur viewed the rioter's prospects. They had formed a massive human wave which in one form or another was throwing its self against the guards and it was working, to an extent. If the guards had reinforcement of approximately five guards, they could compress the crowd from both ends, rendering their advantage a weakness. The spirit of the mob would likely be broken rapidly by the sudden changed in fortune and they would all be arrested post haste.

However what happened next was something which Arthur thought the vault team was incapable of, not because they lacked the facility, but the moral will to embark upon such a course of action.

Obscured from Arthur's view, the guards were readying themselves for the second part of the engagement. Their orders were clear; no one was to leave the vault, not exceptions, no excuses. To them, the order justified everything and the crowd was the impetus for the action.

From the line formation, three men broke off, equipping small containment devices, gas grenades. Compound 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, commonly known as tear gas, adversely affects its targets. It caused temporary blindness, asthma, coughing and general incapacitation. Used primarily as crowd control in days gone by; the gas was stored in the vault as a precautionary measure to be used in the vaults defence. The guards donned their gasmasks as they rotated into the line to allow others to equip theirs at the rear.

When the guards had all equipped their masks, from a duffle bag, they pulled out three small sub machineguns, again purported for the Vaults defence. Magazines were silently loaded as the few guards manning the wall fended off yet more attacks. Within three short minutes three out of the six guards were ready with the gas canisters, their machineguns loaded and readied, while the other three guards had donned their gas masks, still holding back the onslaught of rioters, and were preparing themselves for the inevitable. The seven faceless guards slowed their breathing, each fighting an internal moral battle, trying to calm themselves for what they will do.

One of the faceless looked at his commander, who in turn looked back at him. They were both fortunate they were wearing gas masks, because they couldn't bear to look each other in the eye.  
A Silent nod came from the commander, which the guard received and acknowledged by pulling the pin on his gas grenade, which in turn prompted the other two guards to do the same.  
The grenades sat loosely in the guards hands, as each one awaited the order to throw it. The guard's eyes darted back and forth from the crowd, to the three man strong guard wall and their commanding officer, who by now had walked from the line, and was standing beside them.

He was resolute in his decision; no one was to leave the vault, regardless of the cost. Witnessing the crowd relentlessly attack the shield wall gave the man no qualms about his actions; there was nothing stopping him from giving the order. The Overseer had advocated, or rather, endorsed the order to kill if must be, and lives were cheap. One man's death is a tragedy, many are a statistic, he reasoned.

He looked to his fearful men, who were trembling at the actions they had not yet committed. He scowled at their weakness, as he stared one down, watching the guard shake his head, disagreeing with himself, fighting the moral considerations. To this the officer walked over to the trembling guard and placed himself inches away from his face. If they weren't wearing gas masks he could have smelt his breath.  
"Now." came the simple order from the officer.

Such small words can have the greatest implications. All the death that followed was a result of one man, positioning his men in such a way that they would be forced, despite their objections, to do his command. No man could stand before what was now a crowd of fifty without fear of death, notwithstanding all their armour and training. And nothing can prepare you for the effect of fear; the way it chills you in such a way where even the simplest of actions are indescribably harder, and every decision you make you look back upon and wonder why the choice was made, so confusing is it that it defies all attempt at logic, unaccountable for its actions, it is a stain on you, an irreversible choice made by you, despite all remonstrance. In hindsight all choices are bad ones, for when we account for them, we omit emotion and fear, the sole factors in the decision at that time, not the logic, nor the ramifications, just pure, savage emotion.

With the order the three men threw their grenades into the crowd, and almost immediately there was a distinct hissing sound penetrating the vault, despite all the shouting, crying, yelling and swearing, the deathly hiss was far louder and more distinct than any word said, and everyone heard it.

Three white pillars of smoke billowed out from within the crowd as the smoke churned in the air as it spread through the corridor. Those immediately around the smoke were violently coughing and choking on the air and those further away were rubbing their eyes, trying to rid the burning sensation that had attacked them.  
Witnessing the people choking many in the crowd began trying to escape from the viscous smoke which in turn caused a stampede which only served to render any escape impossible.  
As the people fell, they blocked the way for others who, consequently, fell over them as they closed their eyes in a vain attempt at protecting themselves from the gas. Those at the back of the crowd managed to escape quickly enough but those who either fell or were at the front were subject to the ravenous effects of the gas.

Within a minute the crowd was either incapacitated on the floor or had fled, allowing the guards to advance from their defensive position. Despite them winning the battle, the commander pulled out his pistol and began summarily executing victims on the floor. Each person he came across he would place his foot on their jaw and force their head to the ground, and with one neat shot to the temple, he would end them.

The rest of the team copied this act and almost all of those who had succumbed to the gas were shot within another minute, with no remorse handed out to anyone, regardless of age, gender or position, a true egalitarian slaughter.

Arthur was among the few lucky enough to have been in a position where the gas rendered to them a warning, rather than a threat and as soon as the crowd began running, they had already withdrawn. He looked on in horror as the gas screen protected anyone from attacking the guards as they executed the majority unfortunate enough not to have been able to run away. He lay witness to the horrific sight of the Holden siblings, writhing on the floor with bleeding eyes, choking on air which destroyed and scarred their insides, be executed, without ado, on the floor by two separate in descript guards, a spectacle of police brutality in the extreme.

The smoke lingered in the room, refusing to disperse for want of ventilation, making any attempt of rescuing those damned on the floor an exercise in futility, but that didn't prevent Arthur from trying.

He ran into the cloud, trying to pull anyone from the air, only to be forced to retreat from the onslaught of pain that the cloud brought to his eyes as it endlessly assaulted them. Finally, in a raging coughing fit and with eyes watering from the gas, he was rendered incapable of protecting those only a mere few metres away.  
With gunshots ringing through the vault, those who had managed to escape ran for protection, some helping those they could, others finding those in need a hindrance to their own lives as they ran over them in their frenzied attempt at fleeing.

One such hero had seen Arthur fall to the floor, overcome with the gas, and had helped him up and without Arthurs knowledge or consent, he found himself being carried from the room, arm slung around his savoir. After a short while he was deposited on the floor, in a room with people of varying degrees of injuries. One person was even crying out from a doctor.

"James? Where is James? Jonas?" came the call of the woman who was clearly not abreast of the situation regarding Arthurs farther.

Arthur wasn't sure how many people were in the room, or even how many people got away but by the time of the shooting, approximately half of the vaults 200 residents had shown up either to participate in or spectate the riots, and when the guards began firing, there were roughly 70 shots into the crowd. He estimated 30 people were dead and possibly 60 were injured just as he was.  
Arthur was in his own world of compressed thought again when someone accidently kicked him as they walked passed, throwing him back into awareness of the room. Arthur couldn't see very well and with his best guess, it would take about 10 minutes for his sight to return and the pain to cease, that is to say cease enough to continue. In the meantime Arthur found himself a wanted man in a room full of blinded citizens, a dream situation to some, and Arthur remarked at the fact that he could stay here for a considerable length of time without being noticed. Nonetheless he elected to, as soon as was possible, continue on for the vault exit, but now he would need to find Amata to help him, as only she and her father knew where the Overseer's exit was.

"And where is she now?"

"Outside sir."

"Is she harmed?"

"She has some cuts on her fingers but it's nothing to do with us."

"And the boy?"

"Still missing"

"And you're sure he wasn't in the crowd?"

"Yes sir. We have identified the bodies and he isn't one of them"

The Overseer leant back in his chair as he drummed his fingers against the desk in deep thought. He was aware of the shootings not long ago and Arthur had been spotted among the crowd. However when the shootings began it became impossible to locate him within the crowd of one hundred. The Overseer from his vantage point had seen glimpses of Arthurs and Amata's movements on the large panel of screens adjacent to his desk, which used the surveillance cameras to form a pantograph of most of the vault. Everything was catalogued in secrecy, from Amata's shooting of Mack to Arthurs killing of Kendall, but, despite the success of the surveillance, actually capturing them was a massive problem. The operation was marred by limitations from communicational problems between guards to the doors randomly shutting themselves locked which placed a strenuous weight upon the Overseer. However, despite the failings of his team, they had managed to capture his daughter and ensure she was both out of danger and away from Arthur and his insubordinate actions.

"Thank you Carter. See to it the bodies are removed and burnt in due course. Start planting evidence to blame it on the crowd and keep in contact; I don't want any more mishaps. Perhaps we can complete this with some degree of efficiency." the Overseer thanked and with that, the Officer left the room.

The Overseer looked to the screens and began searching again for any clue on Arthur's location. Each room was meticulously checked, including Amata's, and with each room showing no further indication to Arthur's whereabouts, the Overseer grew increasingly frustrated.  
Eventually, confounded by his own lack of success, he slumped back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. He needed a moment to calm down. The morning had been extremely tense and with all his problems and the incompetence of his own staff he had but little respite.  
Time was pressing on, however, and, as much as he willed against it, time was being wasted, and he was an efficient man.  
The overseer lent over to a small voice console by his desk and pressed a button to contact Hannon. The component made a small buzzing noise and within three seconds Hannon had replied.

"Sir" he reported.

"Bring her in" he replied.

However there was no reply from Hannon, and instead a few silent moments filled the room as the overseer prepared to receive his daughter. There already was a chair set up for her interrogation and some intimidating looking objects, such as batons, left on his desk, just to frighten her.  
The Overseer began thinking about the best way to extract the information about James and Arthur, and his own office, perhaps, was not the best of choices, given that she worked so long in here, a familiar surrounding would only lessen the impact he sought to create. He decided that it would be far more logical to host the interrogation in the security room, only a few metres away. This would both increase the fear factor and shout severity at her without a single word being uttered. The Overseer again lent down and pressed the buzzer.

"Hannon, go to the security room, bring her too." he ordered.

Again, no reply came but the Overseer was content that his will was being carried out.

He pulled himself out of his chair and began towards the door, intent on ending all that conspired against him in the past few hours, and to start an ending he must start with his own child. He left the room quietly and made his way over to the security room and began setting up the chairs for the interrogation. He placed all fatherly thoughts and concerns behind a curtain of resolution for the vault, notwithstanding all the damage he had done to it within the last few hours. The killings had been an unfortunate but necessary expense to quell what could have been more and the repulsive nature of his guards was suppressing further uprisings, for the time being.

The Overseer sat in total silence for a few minutes, waiting patiently for Hannon to bring his daughter, but during those minutes no thought of remorse passed through his thoughts, just necessity and retribution, and Arthur, who, still, was frustrating the efforts of the Overseers security team, despite their intended best efforts.

Suddenly from the silence came a hiss as the door slid open, but once again the room filled with silence. Nobody moved, not the Overseer, not Hannon and not his captive, instead an insidious silence crept into the room and infested the bones of Amata. She was in a state of pure exhaustion and adrenalin, powered by nothing more than chemical impulses to keep her alert, despite her exhausted state brought on by physical and emotional turmoil.

"In." finally said the Overseer.

With the command Hannon dragged Amata into the room by the arm as she stumbled through the doorway, having given up on resisting Hannon's grip. Hannon dragged her weak body to the chair in the centre of the room, placing her firmly down and kicking away his own chair in another exhibition of his authority over her.

The Overseer finally broke his gaze away from space to look disappointedly at his daughter who, in turn, avoided his look at all cost.

"Amata." He started. "What have you done?" he said, not in an angry voice, but in a fatherly, compassionate way that Amata didn't recognise or even think her father possessed.  
Her father walked over by her side and crouched down, not looking at her but rather along her side, so their glances went parallel to each other.

"Do you know how much trouble you have caused?" he asked cynically, but prompting no response from Amata. "I know what you did, Amata. I know you killed Officer Mack. I've seen the footage. There is no denying it." He positioned. "Amata, don't you see? This is because of that… that outlandish Arthur and his insubordination."

"This hasn't got anything to do with him!" she shouted back, finally breaking from her silence due to her intense rage at her father's accusation. The Overseer in kind recoiled a little, not expecting such a reply.

"Oh but it has everything to do with him. I know what he has done to your mind, those games he plays, trying to turn you against me, lying through his teeth to alienate you from me."

"He hasn't done anything" she reaffirmed. "You're the monster here, whatever James has done, it doesn't involve him. You have no right doing what you did to him."

"Amata, can you not hear yourself?" he said, raising his voice and tone to a loud, authoritarian voice, full of accusation and relentless uncontested power. "You yourself have been lying to me for months! He is a parasite, feeding off your emotions, an instrument of his father to get at me! Don't you dare claim his innocence; I know what your little 'friendship' has become!"

Amata froze at the sudden realisation that her father might know about her relationship with Arthur, however, against probability she hoped he was referencing something else, rather than the string of lies that had been told to the Overseer.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She hastily replied, more incriminatingly that convincingly.

"I know what you have been doing with him. I've seen the footage; I know that you're in a relationship with him. I've been filming you and him for months." He stated in his usual, slow and powerful voice.

"You were spying on us?" she asked angrily.

"I supervised your actions. Yes." He acknowledged.

Amata found herself in a terrible rage at the fact her own father had been spying on her for at least a few months. The Overseer, she postulated, must have known everything.

"Why?" she shouted.

"To protect the vault." Came the reply.

"How has my personal life got anything to do with the vault?" she challenged.

"It's got everything to do with it. Just look at your actions today. They are all consequences of your relationship with Arthur. It's him making you do these atrocities, not me or you. I know you're better than him and I know you wouldn't do such a thing in your right mind. You are simply infatuated with him and you can't see the damage you have done. That is why I have monitored you." He defended.

"Monitor? Don't make this seem like it was in my interests" she seethed.

"You are part of the vault and that is all the justification I need." He replied.

"Where have you been recording us from? How often have you been recording us" she demanded.

The Overseer gave no reply but stared into his daughter's eye.

"You've not been spying on us in our bedrooms…have you?" she demanded.

There was no reply from the Overseer, but his silence was as disclosing as any admission.

"You had no right! Why did you even think that you could have done that? What type of sick person are you? I'm your own daughter. That's sick, you're sick and he is sick!" she said as she pointed at Hannon during here raging speech as the anger of the day finally spilled over her.

The Overseer could see his plan to break Amata was working; she was already in an emotional state and all that was left to do was make her fully aware of her position in the vault.

"And you had no right to take that man's life." He replied coldly.

Amata opened her mouth to continue the argument but she knew that her father had won. She didn't dare bring up her father's killing of Jonas; she didn't have the stomach to use dead men as ammunition. Amata still was unaware of the shootings down in the Atrium nor did she know about Arthur killing Kendall; to all intents and purposes, she was blind to the actions of others; the same, however, cannot be said about her father.

"Now are you going to tell me where he is?" he asked patronisingly.

"I don't know where he is" she replied truthfully.

The Overseer sighed with frustration over what he perceived as his daughters lies.

"Very well." He said stepping back. "Would you like to try?" he asked, looking at Hannon, who replied with a cynical grin.

"It would be my pleasure."

Twenty minutes had passed since Arthur had been helped into the makeshift infirmary, and approximately five minutes since he had left due to his sight being restored to a degree where he thought it apt to continue about his horrific day. The mission was still the same, escape, but the conditions around his escape had changed, as well as his paradigm. No longer was he just trying to escape from a vault to search for his father, but now he was escaping from what was a prison where the head of state could do whatever he wanted, justified only by use of force.  
While Arthur politically did not agree with full democracy, he did agree with responsibility and accountability of leaders, and no leader should place his position above that of his constituents, let alone force them below him in a pyramid of subjugation where the police force is more an instrument of will, rather than peace.

Arthur had been making good progress towards the upper level, keenly avoiding the foyer where the slaughter had taken place, if not for avoiding the guards, then for avoiding all the death that invariably covered the place. The vault by now was deafly quiet and every step that Arthur took he could hear again through the echo of the vault which made for paranoid progress.

The auxiliary stairs which lead up to the higher level, or rather, the Overseers level, were only a few metres away after Arthur had rounded his final corner. The stairs were unguarded and invitingly open in spite of all the guards doubtlessly running around the vault in search of him. He slowly and specifically approached the stairs, anticipating a trap, which did not materialise even when he was but five metres away and in clear view from the corridor. Arthur looked around as a paranoid feeling seeped into him, convinced as he was that the walls must have had ears.  
Arthur braved off the trepidation as he took his first step onto the metal staircase that unexpectedly groaned under his weight. Mortified by the sound he immediately retracted his foot and began nervously scanning the room for signs of a response.

None came, a convincing argument that there was, despite logic and all premises, no threat.

Arthur always was one to err on the side of caution, he was never one to dispose of himself to rash actions; caution is the virtue of the successful.

Each footstep on the metal stair made the joints groan painfully as Arthur began his ascent into the unknown, still anxiously searching the area to find any sign of the guards. He was now acutely aware of what they were prepared to go through to achieve their goals; a stark contrast to Arthurs tentative steps for fear of being seen.

When Arthur had finally braved his final steps of the stairs he was confronted with what was almost total silence, aside from a very distant conversation but too hushed by distance to decipher anything from hence. However Arthur had more pressing matters, such as the location of Amata for, despite his good progress, he was now confronted by a wall of indeterminate disposition, specifically he was left in want of direction to the Overseers hidden escape tunnel or even the means to access such an invaluable asset. However, the prospect of finding Amata at either the source of the conversation or in the general direction tempted Arthur to continue towards the voices, but it would, invariably, as he knew, take him closer to the Overseer. Or he could, he postulated, stay put and wait for Amata to show up, but this also carried the inherent danger of the guards finding him too.

After several seconds of due deliberation Arthur sided with the former rather than the latter, both, he thought, would probably end in capture and to prevent humiliation he would walk towards, rather than wait for the conclusion; and so, with one more cautious search around the hallways, he set off to the uncertainty of a distant heard conversation.

With each step closer Arthur could hear more and more of the conversation which had by now devolved into more of shouting with the occasional interlude of cries of pain. Arthur turned a corner into one of the mainframe areas where the large computers were stacked against the wall. On the floor was a body, leaking blood on the floor, a sight which Arthur was unprepared for. The body was in a state where it was unrecognisable. The kneecaps of the body were missing entirely, replaced only by small but messy holes and the face of the body was also missing entirely, replaced by an exit hole that entirely covered where the face should have been. Arthur looked on at the repulsive sight; whoever the person was there was no dignity in their death, as shown by the trails of blood that served to give away the movements of the person before they died. Arthur felt incredibly distressed at the sight not only for the sheer gore, but that whoever had killed the person was a guard, proving that the actions in the foyer were not an isolated case, but a systematic attempt to contain what Arthurs own father had started. This hit home the point that James had indirectly caused all the death today; all the guards actions were a response to his rather unprompted escape.

Arthur decided not to get into the civil war of morality and instead rose to his feet, intent on leaving such a melancholic sight, of which he had no stomach for and with one last look to the body, continued onto the cries.

As Arthur approached the final corner to the room where the shouting was coming from he could finally hear the voices and make out the people involved. He was horrified that he identified Amata as the one who was screaming with pain occasionally and with the Overseers calm veneer of civility talking over her, trying to gain what he couldn't afford to lose, that is to say he couldn't afford to let Arthur escape too.  
Arthur pressed up against the wall and approached close to the room, hiding under the glass pane, just as Amata had done earlier in the day. He then started to listen closely, aware that he was not helping Amata, but to charge in blind and armed with only zeal would leave him at such a disadvantage it would render all his exertions for the day pointless in the face of the Overseer who probably had a radio with which to contact the guards nearby; so, despite his significant other's cry for help, he would need time to think what to do, at the expense of her.

"Please, Amata, Officer Hannon may enjoy this but I don't. Just tell us where to find you friend so we can talk to him." He insidiously proposed.

"He didn't do anything to deserve this." she sobbed.

"I know he didn't, which is why you have to tell me where he is before he gets in trouble." He implored.

A second after the Overseer had finished speaking came a cry as Hannon bent Amata's fingers back, pushing hard at the gash's in her fingers, which evoked a louder cry than Hannon had intended.

To that, Arthur had taken more than he could bear and he withdrew his bag from his back and began rooting around for the pistol and the ammunition, with the intention of using it on Hannon but to only intimidate the Overseer into letting her go free.

Arthur found the pistol and inserted a magazine into the aperture and slid the slide back, releasing the safety as he went. Arthur breathed deep as he mentally prepared himself for what he was going to do. Arthur truly didn't want to kill anybody, he gained no satisfaction from the abhorrent act of murder nor did he gain any pleasure from being in such situations that demanded such reactions, but Arthur's tenacity to save Amata was greater than the impetus not to kill Hannon, for the salvation of the one he loved. Closing his eyes, he stood up at the door, but still out of sight, and breathed for but five seconds, savouring the calm.  
His eyes opened and his hand activated the console and with that the door began to part open.

As the door slid past Arthurs face it revealed three faces with shocked expressions to match. Without hesitation Arthur drew his arm up to the height threateningly and began a staring match with Hannon and the Overseer. Such was the speed that their current circumstance was upon them, no one in the room reacted, not even Arthur had anticipated such a successful reaction. His gaze briefly broke to Amata who pitifully looked to him with a slightly relieved expression. Only a few seconds, hardly half a minute, had passed but the silence seemed to drag time out far beyond its limits.

"Amata, get out." He said, trying to hold his threatening position.

Amata duly tried to leave the room without hesitation but as she rose to her feet Hannon made a grab at her, trying to prevent their one bargaining chip from escaping. To this, Arthur moved the pistol in his direction and moved it slightly to the side in a brisk fashion, to indicate that Hannon should move back. However the powerful man was never one to be ordered around by those younger than him and instead of complying, he push Amata back down in her seat and slowly began walking towards Arthur.

"You haven't got what it takes…" he grinned.

"You ain't got the stones for it. You and your cushy life, I'll show you." His voice was menacing and low, somewhat monotone and meticulous in its delivery, punctuated with precisely timed pauses, lingering on the vowels for impact. To this new threat that was walking towards Arthur he took a step backwards and gave a defying look.

"Hannon, don't force me" he said, shaking a little, only encouraging the Officer with his apprehension.

"I don't even think it's loaded" he said chuckling to himself.

Without a moment's hesitation and with seven feet between them, Arthur had no words to convey a suitable message, so, notwithstanding his absolute disdain of the amount of death that had surrounded the day, he pulled the trigger on the pistol.

The bullet slammed into the gut of the towering officer with a heavy thud, followed by a second thud as the man fell to the floor, clutching his gut and gasping for air. He writhed around on the floor, wanting to scream in agony but restrained by the seer pain in his abdomen and as the three sets of eyes in the room stared at him, all the life drained from his wound and he was quickly unconscious, pending death.

Arthur turned to look at a shocked Amata and Overseer staring either at him or the body.

"Amata, please, go" Arthur reinstated.

Amata stood and fled from the room without further ado, walking carefully over the body of Hannon.

Arthur then turned to the Overseer in kind. He stood a good distance away from him, with the body in the foreground, and the Overseers back against a wall in the far corner of the room. However to the surprise of Arthur the Overseer wasn't scared or anxious in anyway, but instead held a stern countenance, frowning back at Arthur with utter disdain with eyes that looked on in an entirely detestable fashion.

"I hope you're here to turn yourself in young man."

Arthur looked to the body on the floor with a slightly incredulous look on his face

"Evidently not." he replied.

"You're already in enough trouble as it is; don't make it worse for yourself."

Arthur ignored the accusation and decided to go on an assault of his own. He closed the gap between the two of them, still brandishing the pistol, and forced the Overseer against the wall in anger.

"I swear to god, there is no greater or nobler a cause than killing you, the only thing that prevents your death is your affiliation to Amata, if you ever touch her again you will regret every moment you live thereafter." Arthur spat.

"Arthur," the Overseer grinned, clearly finding Arthurs Achilles heel, "You have my word, no harm will come to her. I can't say the same for you; do you know how much trouble you've caused? You will be lucky to get the next hundred years in jail."

"The trouble I have caused has led to several deaths, granted, but whereas each state used to possess an army, it would appear that you and your army possess a state. I've seen what you did in the Foyer, do you know how many people died?" he exploded.

The Overseer grinned even more. "And if you had given yourself up, none of this would have happened. Do you not see this is because of you and your father? You have caused the deaths, not me."

"I have done nothing wrong, you and your police state are the bane upon the earth and the entire reason why we are subjected to a life like rats, and a life like this is no life at all. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy, I am not an idiot, I know by causing the fear you seek to destroy you enslave people here, my father was just intelligent enough to escape. You are a sick, twisted man who is not even worthy of death, the scum of the earth stands before me and there is no want greater than mine for your death, yet the only good thing you ever did was raise Amata, and it is the only thing to save you." Arthur scorned with utter hatred and remonstrance.

The Overseer tutted with amused contempt. "Such anger Arthur. Where will such words get you?"

"Even the most civilised men can burn with the hatred passion for another. Give me the keys and I will be gone from here, you will not see me again, by god you can depend upon it, nothing in existence can make me want to return so long as you or I live." he demanded, scowling fiercely at the Overseer whilst forcing the gun into his chest.

"Oh is that all? Perhaps you would like me to locate the emergency exit for you too?" The Overseer retorted sarcastically.

"If you don't, then I will publish the permanent records of the vault to their respective residents. All the information you despicably gathered about them will be before their eyes before your team can reach me, and do you really think the populous will be pleased with that? Do you not think I will be vindicated for my actions? You may have the guns but they have the power, and if you must kill them to rule, then over what dominion will you rule but empty warrens?" Arthur positioned triumphantly.

The Overseer gave a hate filled look at Arthur, as he knew he was in check.

"Fine," he said throwing the key at Arthur, "Go, but when the wastes are more than you could ever imagine, then you will know the life I protected you from, and like an ungrateful child scolded for his actions you will return, but you will be no prodigal son to me."

"That's just as well then, for you were a father to no one." Arthur said as he picked up the key of the floor cautiously and walked out of the doorway.  
To ensure the Overseer wouldn't escape he shot the control panel when the door had closed, not so much locking him in rather than keeping him temporarily captive. From within the room the Overseer sat down on the chair his daughter had sat in while he tortured her and, looking at Hannon's corpse, sighed heavily for all he had wanted to prevent had just come to fruition.

After Arthur had left the room he walked down a corridor leading to the Overseers room, in as much an attempt to leave as to be away from the Overseer. He knelt down and reopened the bag and slid his pistol in and took a quick drink of water to steady his nerves before walking to the most likely escape route, the Overseers Office. As he walked to the office he could hear sobbing from one of the rooms adjacent. He followed the sound curiously, trying to work out who it came from. While still some distance away from the room, Arthur discovered that the melancholic sounds were from Amata, who he decided to comfort in any way possible.

He entered the room to find Amata on a chair, head in hands, and leaning against a table, covering herself as best she could from whatever emotion sought to attack her. Arthur slowly walked up to her and placed a gentle hand on her back. However she shrugged him off, to Arthurs surprise and upset, and instead of some emotional embrace, she waved her hand at Arthur, still not looking up to him. A profound sadness overcame Arthur as he wanted only to comfort the one he loved above all else.

Arthur stood over her for a few moments more; his eyes trained on her every movement, trying to find a way to help her. Once more though Amata waved her hand at Arthur, twice this time, more in an indicative manner, which caused Arthur to turn around. There on the floor was a body, clad in white lab coat. The body most likely had been dragged from another room and had been placed in a haste, which would explain why the limbs of the body were in a star shape, rather than respectfully laid out. Arthur walked over to the body, disbelieving his eyes, trying to deny what was in front of him. He knelt down to the body and gentle rolled it over so the face was facing the ceiling.

There in front of him, the man was revealed to be Jonas, one of his lifelong friends and few confidents. The man's eyes were closed but his face and head were heavily bruised, but notwithstanding the bruising and the damage, the man looked peaceful in death. Arthur, for the first time in years and despite all that had happened today, was overcome entirely with emotion at his friend's death. He fought back tears as he looked at his late friend, and an empty feeling replaced all others in his body.

Arthur squinted in an attempt to force the tears away, and his mouth opened as his breathing became erratic. Amata saw the distress that he was in and walked over to comfort and in a complete role reversal from a minute before, she now placed her hand comfortingly against his back as she knelt down beside him. She herself was becoming emotional as she looked at the body that Arthur refused to believe was his friend. Amata lay her head against his, trying to soothe his visible pain as several tears escaped from his eyes.

A few moments passed as the grieved for their friend, but instead of the silent vigil, Arthur rose to his feet, which Amata imitated, and he looked dispassionately at her.

"Can we leave now? I think I've had enough. Its time for me to go." He lamented.

Amata gave him a weary smile as she wiped away the tears that had accumulated in her face.

"Yeah, we can go." She said solemnly as she wiped away his tears with her cuff.

The pair walked in total silence to the Overseers office to find the escape exit that Amata knew about. The two were in deep silence even when they reach the office which was surrounded by screens showing various video feeds, including a replay of when Amata shot Mack. The video was on a loop from the second she pulled the trigger and ended when the body fell from the screen only to be reset again. Clearly the Overseer had been watching that particular tape and wondering what to do next. Fortunately Amata had not noticed the screen but Arthur had, so he, in consideration of Amata, switched off the monitor to avoid any undue distress.

Amata walked over to the Computer and began typing away at the keyboard as she searched for a line of code to open the hatch.

"What are you doing?" Arthur asked.

"I'm searching for a line of code in the network. Command prompt is locked on this, for some reason, so I will have to open each programme with a backdoor entrance to find it."

Arthur, who after years of being blocked out by passwords and programmes had decided that computers were not his forte, looked on curiously.

"Have you found it?" he asked, trying to avoid disturbing her.

"Yes." She replied. Within a second of her reply the desk moved backwards and the floor parted slightly. Amata and Arthur jumped off the separating floor and watched in awe as the computer and floor revealed a small staircase directly below the Overseers chair.

"How did you know about this?" Arthur questioned.

"I had to study the schematics as part of my internship. I know everything there is to know about this place" she admitted.

Amata lead Arthur down the stairs to a sealed metal door with a small aperture for the key that Arthur in his pocket. He pulled the key out and inserted it into the hole and without touching anything, the door's seal hissed as gas escaped as the door parted slightly.

The two stood apprehensively, waiting for whatever was coming next. Arthur grew impatient and tentatively pushed the door open, to be confronted with another corridor which was narrow enough to restrict passage to one person line abreast, and pitch black, not lit by anything in over centuries. Amata turned on her Pipboy light as Arthur set off down the corridor, searching for a door in the dark, to which he was forced also to turn on his light.

Lit by their Pipboy's, the shadowy darkness revealed a door at the end of the corridor, opened by a small panel with a single switch labelled either "on" or "off". Amata pushed the switch from off to on and without sound the door slid upwards into the ceiling, disclosing a large room with a reactor positioned in the centre with arcs of electricity spurning from it. The room was a metallic charcoal colour, where the shadows accentuated every aspect of every dimension. The room also hummed slightly from the plethora of machines adhered to walls which continually monitored every aspect of the vault.

"These are the auxiliary drives." Amata let on, sensing Arthur's fascination with the room as he looked endlessly around, trying to make some understanding of the room.

"It's incredible that this exists yet is not a part of the mainframe. Surely the benefit to the vault would be greater to be used by the staff, not monitored by ghosts." Arthur suggested.

"That is because we aren't meant to use it." Amata stated.

"Why? Who else would this benefit if not us?" Arthur questioned.

"The recording devices are used to transmit data back to the Vault-Tec Headquarters to monitor the vault and its residents. The equipment is supposed to monitor until either the vault opens or everyone dies."

"That's a morbid thing to do, wouldn't you agree? There is no privacy here." Arthur said, slightly insulted that he had been monitored all of his life by machines that may or may not be manned by people at the other end.

"You don't know the worst of it." Amata sighed.

"To what do you mean?" Arthur asked, squinting slightly at such an ambiguous statement that could carry huge consequences.

"My father has, or rather had, been monitoring us." She disclosed.

Arthur sighed a little but didn't seem that shocked by the statement.

"I suspected as much. My father said that he had seen monitoring equipment around but I didn't really believe him to the extent that I should. I knew your father would have been prone to such authoritarian tactics, what is truly surprising, however, is that there was no action on his behalf sooner, in regards to us. Surely that would have outraged him. However, we clearly underestimated how powerful your father is, so it should come as no surprise."

Amata agreed with Arthur summary. It was strange how the Overseer never acted overtly, but it would explain the overtime he would always have her pull, which coincided with Arthur's time off.

Arthur wandered off towards some panelling, trying to work out what it recorded while Amata searched some more of the auxiliary room. A small doorway built into the wall lead to a large opening which in turn leads to a large trench like dip in the floor leading up to a massive metal cog which took up half of the wall. Amata stared in awe of the mechanical feat that it must have taken to engineer such a device. There was a roof mounted 'key' of sorts which she knew from schematics would open the door when prompted and a small bright yellow console which would set the whole thing in motion.

"Arthur!" Amata called.

There was a loud crash of metal where Arthur was standing, obscured from view to Amata so when Arthur came running in with face like a child had broken something, she had to inquire what he was doing.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." He said hastily.

"Did you break something?" she questioned.

"No." he said, trying to end this line of conversation. "What is you wanted?"

"There" she gestured with her hand.

Arthur stood silently as he looked at all the apparatus. From the massive cog to the giant key, there was not one thing about it that wasn't perfectly designed.

"How are we to open it?" he asked.

Amata walked over to the console and looked at Arthur. "By pressing this button"

Arthur walked over to her and placed his hand on the red button and paused for a moment.

"By means of this door there is a new life. However if I am honest with myself I am not yet ready to detach myself from the one I currently live. The reasoning of my reluctance to leave is despite everything that has happened here, in its entirety and with today included, I have not the heart to leave. It is not some material desire that keeps me restrained but rather one in the abstract that you cannot come with me. I do not know what is beyond those doors and I have no doubt my father is far beyond them by now, but I cannot bring myself to go after him and abandon you. I will not have it that you will follow me, I wouldn't put myself in this place if it were not borne of necessity, but I will do no justice to myself to allow the occasion to pass where I don't confess myself to you. My liberty to express myself to you has been limited, I know, by myself and while it would appear to an effect that I do not love you, the contrary could not be truer. I must leave you now, notwithstanding your fathers actions, for I believe a life here is better than one out there. Emotions have always been hard, but for the benefit of you, I must sacrifice what I hold dear. You must stay."

Amata stood with a disbelieving look on her face. Every word Arthur spoke angered her to her core and the emotions of her day would not let her bite her tongue and accept his position.

"Are you serious? After everything today, after all I've been through to help you escape and after all I've seen and done, you want to just leave me here?"

Arthur opened his mouth to make his point but Amata countered before he could speak.

"You want to leave me here with a man that killed Jonas? And a man's whose security team is perfectly at home murdering an innocent man such as Floyd? Does it not occur to you that I was always planning on going with you, and that everything that had happened today was in the knowledge that I love you enough to leave with you? You can stand there and tout your fancy words but you can't pretend that it's for the good of me when I'm trapped in a prison with him."

It occurred to Arthur that Amata was not aware of the slaughter on the foyer, but advised himself such emotional secrets must be delivered slowly.

"Amata, the circumstance which have placed me here I have had no control over. Your father will not allow any harm to come to you in the vault, I know despite the fact his parenting style leaves much to be desired. He can protect you, whereas I cannot. Past that door I cannot even guarantee there are provisions to allow me to breath. Here you have everything and will be in want of nothing. No caring man can see his girlfriend perish by want without feeling for them, and most particularly, he must feel for them when he knows that they have been brought into the world, which he himself does not want to be part of, in which this want was by his own act, on his own responsibility, not by the orders of someone who is superior. I cannot bear to live where I, by my own want, place you in danger. So yes, nothing is more misleading than affectionate opinion and I will not have it that you come with me." He argued, raising his voice slightly towards the end.

Amata stood with tears in her eyes, in sheer disbelief.

"Arthur, can you not hear yourself, it's not you who wants me to go outside, and it's me who wants to go with you. I cannot stand to stay here with a man who I call my own father who acts as a tyrant. Please, if there is ever one thing I need you to do for me, take me with you, don't leave me with him.

Arthur paused for a second; he couldn't bear to look Amata in the eye for fear of emotions.

"If you come with me, you cannot die. For if you do then I will never have lived; and no greater force will keep me from losing it all, for loss of you. I love you, but you must promise me that no harm can become of you, for it will do immeasurable damage to me, and I do not say these things for selfish reasons, but for they are true, and a life where you are no longer in mine but instead you are safe in here, is better than one where you were with me, but have perished to the landscape. I cannot bear the thought, but endure it I must if you are to come. Can you promise me that?"

Amata gave Arthur another weary look.

"Yes." She said smiling, trying to fight back another bout of tears.

Arthur smiled back at her with the same thin lipped smile she gave him as he pressed the button.

The duo looked at the giant key as the room flared to life. There were wailing sirens and flashing lights, in all it was a cacophony of blinding lights and deafening sounds in the grey tint of the room. The key they were looking at made a screeching noise as it descended from its resting place to its sole purpose, opening the door which had changed roles from keeping out to keeping in under the Overseers direction. The key pulled into the aperture and stopped for a brief moment. Then, as if hell itself was screaming in pain, the rancorous screeching of metal indicated that the metal cog was being pulled out of place.

The screeching had forced Arthur and Amata to cover their ears in a bid to save their hearing, but the penetrating sound hurt nonetheless.

As suddenly as it had started, the screeching stopped, to which Arthur and Amata looked on in fearful apprehensiveness. The door rolled sideways to the right, revealing a tunnel, dimly lit by lanterns, and a wooden door with rays of light shining through.

Amata grabbed Arthurs hand tight as the door finally settled in place, which Arthur held tight for his own protection. The two stood there, not really wanting to leave everything behind. However from behind those two guards came running out of one of the doorways, heading straight for them.

Arthur ran with Amata in his hand as he led her through the doorway, running over skeletons as they did. Arthur turned around to see where their pursuers were, only to see them standing in the doorway, looking extremely apprehensive about leaving the safety of the vault. One of the two turned to the other and said,

"I don't care what the Overseer said, I'm not going out there." And with that they withdrew back into the vault.

Arthur turned to Amata who gave a pleasantly shocked look to Arthur. However no such pleased emotion could be found when the sirens of the door started back up and the flashing lights lacerated from the doorway. The heaving metal rolled back into place with the sickening screeching and as the last inch of open door closed, there really was no going back.

Another few moments of silence ensued.

"Do you think we can make it outside, Arthur?" Amata asked, wondering how difficult life would be for them.

"I have nothing else planned for this evening" Arthur quipped, forcing Amata to giggle a little, but in reality they were both hiding their fears from each other. For neither of them knew the world that awaited them, and in a few remaining moments of guaranteed peace they were not to waste it by acting in such a way as to decrease their spirtits, for god knows what they were going to encounter outside.

Arthur looked around the cavern, paying particular attention to the skeletons on the floor, which Amata had also picked up upon.

"It must have been hell out here." She said, lamenting on the deaths of those so desperate to get into where they had just escaped from.

"Hell is empty, the devils are in there." Arthur said, referencing the vault.

Amata nodded slowly. "Come on. We have to leave" she asserted.

Arthur nodded in agreement and, each other in hand, they walked towards the door.

The door was made from decaying wood which allowed light to seep through and to Amata's touch, broke into small pieces.

"Do you want the honour or should I?" Amata asked.

"Oblige yourself." He replied graciously.

Amata grasped the rusty handle of the door and pulled it heavily towards herself as the centuries old hinges buckled and snapped, rather than opened. Suddenly there was a great influx of blinding light, which forced them to shield their faces as the blinding light assaulted their eyes. Slowly, as their eyes readjusted to the light, they could see what was left of the old world.


End file.
